Magick Magician Milla!
by SKOOLATOON
Summary: Join Camilla De Luca, a spunky sixteen year old girl, on her crazy adventures! It's pre-Hakurei Barrier Gensokyo— the term Gensokyo doesn't even exist yet— and that means anything goes! She and her friend and heir to the Hakurei, Kiyoko Hakurei, try to get by in a world where Hakurei decree is law, and youkai aren't exactly super sexy women who will give you headpats and AC/DC CDs.
1. Havoc in the Hakurei Village!

Camilla got out of bed.

"Nn— hnh…" She stretched her back, arms raised into the air as vague sunlight speckled the interior of her room.

Her hair was long and brown. She wore—

'_I ain't wearing anything, 'cause I just woke up!'_

Getting out of her bed, she stumbled. Hunching over, she claimed her pants from the floor nearby. '_Wa— wait. I oughta throw on my undies first. Don't want no Hakurei guy gettin' any ideas. Wouldn't wanna end up on a hot date!'_

Mentally, she drooled a little at the idea. _'Like, a big, half-dumb Hakurei dude. Wit' pretty hair, and a body that ain't too stupid, but—... maybe a nice pair a' abs. He'd keep me trapped in bed, press his face inta my chest, and— I'd coil my own dainty legs 'round his—'_

She had something to do this morning. '_Nn. Ain't no time ta play wit' myself.'_

She slid her white bloomers on, finding them amidst the blankets, and _then_ slid her pants on.

A worn ivory bra— from age, not design— went on over her medium chest, and she looked for her plain robe. '_Alrightie…'_

'_Almost ready fer combat! Just— gotta find my socks now…'_

Plain, brown boots went on over her socks. _Now,_ she was ready.

The Georgian— or western— calendar read October 31st, 1877.

"Hey, mo~m!" Lumbering out of her neglected, messy room, Camilla held a hand aside her mouth as she called out. "I'm headin' out again!"

In this house's main room, her brown-haired mother plainly turned to nod at her. "Mmm. Have fun."

_Crea~k._ Pushing the front door open, Camilla moseyed outside.

Her house was on the north-eastern edge of the Hakurei Village. It was a remote sort of village, nestled beside a mountain deep within rural Japan.

"Aa~h…" Taking in the scent of dirt and horses, Camilla immediately turned, moving for one of the village's edges. "Ah— shit. What's the time…?"

The sun was low in the east, just rising. She was always out of the house at the crack of dawn, for a big reason.

'_If Kiyoko-chan got there 'fore I did— I ain't ever livin' it down!'_

Hurrying down the road, Camilla took in the early morning village around herself…

Her home was on the very north edge of the village. Before herself, she could see houses, but behind those houses was a mile of infrastructure, packed housing, colorful parks of contained foliage, farming endeavors, and more.

Behind her home, there was the woods. But, since the primary threats were to the south, and most Hakurei initiates _trained_ in the northern woods, there was no worry.

'_More on that shit about threats later…!'_

Familiar villagers were just starting their days; mostly the serious types, like the shrine maidens, or the holy warriors of the Hakurei who lived amongst the human population.

Smiling, Milla stretched, taking in a huge breath of crisp, flighty morning air.

'_My family came over from Europe at some point. Italy specifically, I think. It was Italy, right…?'_ Camilla thought of the past, as she took in the gold, airy morning sun and pale sky. '_Y'see, we're magicians from the west.'_

She thought about her western heritage often. She was born here in Japan, so whenever she heard of the plainness of the western mainland, it felt like a stark contrast to the absurd ecosystem surrounding this village.

They seldom had contact with outside civilization. This wasn't necessarily because the Hakurei were cold to communications, although the decline of the sword had made them pretty much become that.

'_They wanted our westy magic, 'cause it was a little different than the black an' white shit they got over here.'_

Western magic dealt with the elements. Meanwhile, here in Japan, elementalism was far rarer and, as such, scarier. Youkai were far more often elemental, and the Hakurei warriors mainly used dark, holy, and force to get their work done.

'_Oh, yeah, youkai. From what I hear, rest a' the world ain't being attacked by fuckin' oni and monsters!'_

The real reason the world didn't talk to the village, was because it was surrounded by monsters.

Fairies, beastmen. The nearby mountain was ruled by oni. Along its side, and the perimeter of the near plains, was the opposing tengu village.

Regularly, caravans from neighboring territories attempted to cross through, disbelieving. They kept the youkai fed. Stragglers would find their way to the Hakurei Village proper, through the battlegrounds. Only recently, the Hakurei also found out, the youkai intentionally sent other stragglers back whence they came, to spread their influence to other territories.

'_As fer the more exact details of how this rural-ass village got its shit kicked in, an' why we're living in a fuckin'... fantasy novel warzone, beats me. Far as I can tell, this shit ain't normal, but that's about it…!'_

'_Like, if ya take ten good steps outta the village, a big plant monster might shove its leaves up yer cunt and make a rag outta ya! Not in the sexy way either.'_

Looking up, Camilla saw the fortification on the edge of the village.

It was the pinnacle of the monster-infested land's strength and hope, the Hakurei Castle.

Even though it was on the north of the village, it could be seen from anywhere. It was four or five times taller than local trees. The actual amount of stories it contained was difficult to measure.

Their leader resided in tight corridors inside, sealed away from the outer world by the most potent of divination and magical seals.

'_None a' that hokey castle shit matters ta me, though. I got shit ta do!'_ Camilla stopped staring the huge megastructure down.

As she hustled down the dirt trail of the tightly packed village, one of the morning-time villagers come up alongside her…

"Hey, Cammy." He was a young man with messy, brown hair, clad in red-white Hakurei regalia. "Where're you stompin' off to-"

"Fuck off, dude." Camilla waved him off. "I got shit ta do!"

Taken by her rudeness, he huffed, quickly tailing after her as she jogged. "Is- is that any way to talk to anyone?"

"It's the way _I_ talk ta _you."_ Camilla gave him a flat look. "I'm not lettin' ya ram me from the back, buddy!"

"Wh- ah…" His mouth hung ajar, and he hurried to keep up with her after lagging behind. "You're- awfully to the point today."

"'Cause I'm _late!"_ She grinned back. "An' it's _Milla,_ not _Cammy,_ stud."

He grinned wider himself. "I ought to call you _Alice._ Got any rabbit holes you plan on falling down?"

"Oh, fuck ya." Milla waved him off. "Last time I lend a Hakurei a book."

Soon, they neared a corner of the greater dirt road infrastructure. Milla planned to dart off into an alley, but slowed so she could give this man a formal goodbye...

Reading her expectant gaze, he tilted his head to the side. "Y'know, I'm being nice. If I really wanted..."

'_If he really wanted, he could put forward an order or some shit and declare me his breedin' partner, yeah whatever.'_

Snorting, Milla nodded. "An' I don't give a shit. Ya could be one of them old jerks who build their harems by power, but yer not gettin' yer sticky fingers on _me_ any time soon."

'_Fer reference… y'know, us westerners ain't necessarily respected in the village here. Elementalism's looked at as a youkai-like thing by some of the Hakurei. They didn't have huge respect fer the raggedy-ann villagers in the first place, and like… this is Japan. I remember my folks bein' like, 'if things were strict back inland, there's no room for mistakes here'.'_

'_...Are they right? I got no fuckin' idea, I've never been ta Europe. But if it's as borin' a place as my dad is a person, then it's probably actually worse than here.'_

"It's just—..." He laxed his shoulders, and took a moment to slowly blink. "You're a cute girl. And— if I don't look out for ya… like— someone _else_ could try to, and in a more forceful way. Aa— and I know I'm kind of a jerk, but—"

"If anyone tries ta get in my pants, I'll burn their dicks off." Milla waved him off again. "Just like I'll burn yers off, if ya don't scram, pal!"

'_This guy hits on me every damn mornin'. An'... y'know, he is kinda hot, but I got better things ta do than get laid or talk ta this loser.'_

"Well. Alright." For today, he gave up again. "Don't go shootin' anyone tall and scary, now."

"Mmh." With that, Milla romped off into the alleys.

'_...I'm sure he'll still be waitin' for when I'm ready. That'll be fer another time. It's definitely not 'cause it'd be too awkward ta drop what I'm doin'. Or 'cause I've never been in a damn relationship with a cute guy before. Definitely not.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

1 | Havoc in the Hakurei Village!

'_Didn't forget my staff, did I? Ah— good, s'right there. Don't even remember grabbin' it.'_

Keeping her balance with her staff, her shoes clumsily pressed into the side of a roof's shingles.

Milla had climbed up onto the top of a nearby house, leering down upon a clearing, slowly progressing around the side quietly, carefully, and sure to not make noise.

'_All my shit's still set up, aw right…'_

The houses around the village were mostly all wooden, with colored shingle roofs that produced difficult slants for operations like walking.

Below her, a maiden clad in red and white stood there idly. She occupied a plain clearing between many buildings, lush with mixed grass amidst long stretches of dirt.

That young woman standing below was the next heir to the Hakurei clan.

"...Hmm." Kiyoko Hakurei panned her gaze around the clearing idly. "She's late."

_Clack!_ Milla ran down to the edge of the roof, and leapt off, staff held up high.

"_He~hehehe!"_ Her heart leaping in her chest, Milla flailed her limbs, as she dropped down over Kiyoko.

"Aa—" Looking back, Kiyoko's heart jumped too, eyes wide.

_Woosh!_ Milla jumped again in the air, her legs flailing, as she did a flip straight over Kiyoko.

_Bam!_ "Uhf- _fhuck!"_ Then, Milla planted her ass straight into the dirt behind Kiyoko. "Ow!"

"What—..." Kiyoko stepped back from her, hands to her heart. "Mi— Milla?"

Getting up off her butt, Milla held her staff tight. "I— I ain't no Milla! I'm here ta assassinate ya!"

After some blinks, Kiyoko began to smirk. "Of— of the both of us, I believe—... _your_ ass may need more care."

"Je— jeez!" Beaming, Milla got off the ground, using her staff to fight back into standing. "Y'better look the _fuck_ out, ze!"

"I take it your recent 'perfection' is that… wind skill." Kiyoko figured. "It seemed to let you jump a second time."

Dropping her act, Milla gave a single big nod. "Awh, yeah. It ain't real flashy by itself, but I tell ya, s'probably a real jaw dropper when used right! Ya jump, an' they think they got ya fucked, then ya _jump again!_ Ahah!" In her excitement, she thrust her staff's tip at Kiyoko.

_Clack!_ Bringing a bokken up, Kiyoko stopped the staff from booping her in the boob, wood blade held with both hands. "...You're trying awfully hard to stick to the whole, 'it's not magic if it isn't flashy' principle."

...Feeling like she was being watched somehow, Milla looked around herself.

The houses around this clearing were populated by particularly elderly, uncaring people who didn't feel like screwing with the two's friendship. It's why Kiyoko and Milla came here, instead of any other random clearing.

The Hakurei heir being around the village wasn't anything of worry to the castle or her family. Rather, overcoming the challenges posed by her own behavior was a trial in and of itself.

'_Her folks don't worry about her gettin' up to hijinks. As she told me once, s'basically a stupidity test. If she gets herself knocked up by some idiots, or killed by some common crap, then she wasn't a fit heir ta begin with.'_

It also wouldn't be the first time in history a direct heir became worthless, and had to be replaced by another one. It's for this reason, the Hakurei rulers typically had more than one child. Resources were poured into that first child, then the others would see attention if the first faltered.

If the people around this particular clearing were more opportunistic, they'd see more value in attempting to lavish the Hakurei heir in their attention. They'd be attempting to find a spot in the castle.

Kiyoko had to always have her guard up. Always, always. Yet…

"Wait!" Milla held up a hand. "Look out!"

Suddenly, Kiyoko's body tensed. She looked around, wood bokken poised to react to threats…

Milla looked up, and grinned.

A water balloon rolled down off the roof's shingles. Milla had hooked it up to a gravity timer, and she knew just how to prop the gravity magic and resulting drop so that it wouldn't pop. She was very bored.

As it took a dive off the roof, Milla held up her hand, and the wind beckoned her call.

Seeing her hand, Kiyoko looked up—

_Splash!_ But, it was too late. "Ee— _aa—..._" Kiyoko was soaked. The water balloon had popped over her.

Milla hustled up to her, her broom-staff floating along in the air behind herself. "Awh— oh no! You got water all over you, Hakurei maiden!"

"Wh—" Kiyoko turned to her. "Woah!"

Sweeping her arms under her, Milla picked the scrawny girl up bridal style. "Here, lemme take ya back to my room, meet the folks, and also lemme _rape the shit outta ya!"_ Aggressively, she fondled Kiyoko's left breast with the only arm she could use.

_Whack._ Kiyoko's fist met her nose.

...Slowly, Milla clumsily lowered her, and Kiyoko got back onto her own feet.

"Uu— owh." Mila felt at her own reddening nose. "Y- ya got a mean punch, Kiyoko-chan…"

"What— the actual hell was the point of this…?" Kiyoko looked down at her wet clothes, as the early morning sun began to creep over the world. "You've _soaked me._ The day's not even hot yet…"

"The point's that yer too dang gullible!" Milla flourished an arm out. "Ya walk around wit' that stone mask, but yer easy ta surprise. Too easy! Wasn't hard fer me ta see that _sweet, supple girl_ on the inside. An' an innocent li'l prank like that is the perfect segue ta slip ya inta somewhere they're comfy wit'. You gotta be ready from all angles!"

"I'll punch them in the face." Kiyoko delivered plainly.

Milla shook her head. "_No,_ ze. Yer gonna be all surprised, he's gonna try an' be mister samurai man, an' yer gonna end up kissin' face an' gettin' backstabbed 'fore you know it."

...Kiyoko exhaled. "Who're you to know how that'd play out? Wh— why? I mean— why tell me these things? Do you have your own motive?"

Milla rolled her eyes. "Oh, ya know _me._ It hurts seein' ya be so starry-eyed. Shit like this's how dynasties fall. Ya become someone's pet 'cause yer _innocent,_ then ya get yer world crashin' down on you. Boom— _klang—_ _engh!"_

...After looking vaguely worried at the noises Milla made at the end there, Kiyoko responded. "Where do you come up with ideas like these?"

"...It just makes sense."

Milla knew, but she couldn't explain. It was a feeling, created from what she'd seen back home, and also here. It was how people acted— and if anyone knew how people acted, it was her.

"Yer in the most damning position of us all. It only makes sense, that everyone would have somethin' against ya. Not that they always will. But, ya can't rely on luck."

Finding her own thoughts was hard. Milla had to focus on presenting _and_ explaining. Drop one or the other, and the conversation would be for naught.

Kiyoko considered her words, as the sun and clouds above turned. "I see your reasoning…"

"I know it sounds impossible right now…" Milla smiled at her. "But, ya gotta be strong, Kinky-chan. Y'can't let other's kinks get ya down!"

"Don't— call me that." Kiyoko wore an endearing variant of faux-worry for a brief moment, before returning to casual pensiveness. "Still. That just—... seems like a tall order. I feel like life wouldn't be fun, if I was always on edge."

Milla really considered that.

'_...Yeah. I guess it wouldn't be. But…'_

That went against her philosophy. A life without fun wasn't a life worth living. '_I almost wanna tell her to ditch this Hakurei clan shit altogether. But, we know that's all unrealistic. 'Bout as unrealistic as me runnin' away, and survivin' a single day.'_

'_Damn dad. Only reason we're here in fuckin' Japan is his dumb ass.'_

"I guess not." Milla could only say that. She'd gotten caught in her own thoughts.

Kiyoko looked at the floor.

'_...Ugh. This whole village is a fuckin' drag.'_

Milla looked back up at her. "Then, yer just gonna hafta get so damn strong, that even at yer weakest, no damn idiot can just come up an' off ya, or trick ya."

Kiyoko frowned. "That kind of strength… exists?"

"I dunno." Milla had no idea. "But… damned if ya do, damned if ya don't, right? Y'really oughta live a little. I got a feelin' power ain't outta reach, if we just—..."

'_How do I explain it? It's just— it's just off the beaten trail. Just outta sight of all the idiots who'd dare to get in our way, who'd be pissed off at our progress for no damn good reason.'_

Her dad hated her and her mother's studies, but now that they could provide for the family, he couldn't do more than degrade other aspects of their life in petty, superficial retribution. The Hakurei frowned upon excessive, non-productive magical practice, but they didn't have eyes everywhere.

The Hakurei clan's innermost, most meaningful members kept the clan's upper echelon tight on discipline and tradition. Those people could also be the most shrewd, undisciplined and deceiving of all; Milla knew enough about government to figure that much.

These people would superficially decide to get in the way of herself, or potentially Kiyoko, for any number of petty, circumstantial reasons. They would enforce beliefs that didn't truly mean anything if they weren't around. Government and regulation for the sake of itself.

'_Stupid assholes. Sayin' crap like, 'using that magic makes you close to a youkai', and 'you shouldn't use it more than necessary'. Stupider villagers bein' just scared by it, not even givin' any reasons why. If youkai used swords, would that make the Hakurei youkai too? Fuckin'... some of them do, even!'_

At the moment, Kiyoko was lucky, Milla figured. Kiyoko was still fair in interests, and satisfied with her world and her studies. The cultural restrictions on art and magic didn't apply to her so far. But, if she ever caught a niche interest, she'd see the world's cruelty.

'_She'd see the world's inability to think. Both logically, and on the same page in general.'_

As for Milla… _'Fuck this place. Fuck Europe, fuck Japan, and fuck my dad, kinda fuck my mom too, and fuck this village.'_ She wasn't entirely happy.

How would she explain that? How _could_ she explain all of that? If she didn't deliver it just the right way, it would all be meaningless. No one believes or follows an uncharismatic presentation, regardless of anything. And, there was no simple way to _speak_ this kind of information in the time it took to understand it.

Milla hated bothering with others for this reason. It was so much easier to not, and let the others go fuck themselves.

"...Milla?" Kiyoko tilted her head.

"Aa— ah." Milla still had to say something, though. "You just—... you gotta be strong, Kiyoko."

'_Damn it.'_ She knew she fucked it up already. '_You know what…'_

Kiyoko blinked, and gave a vague nod. "...I'm always trying. But, I'll also try for you, I guess."

"People in yer clan are gonna get in your way." Milla found her words. "People in the village. People ya choose to hold close. People who're your good friends, an' also the ones who ain't.

"...I— I ain't sayin' everyone you see's evil. I'm just sayin—... in this world, no one's not lookin' out for themselves, and you are a big, power tool. Big target, big tool, an' big yen."

'_My fuckups here— in this talk— are gonna naturally cost me shit down the line, too. I'm not a fuckin' people person.'_

"For one stupid damn reason or another, people will think what ya do is stupid. Evil, and wrong. Like yer all-deserving of their eternal vengefulness an' pettiness." Milla declared. "...Please, don't be a retard, Kiyoko. Don't let those nothings piss on yer dreams."

...Kiyoko felt like she understood. Smiling, she nodded, her long black hair blowing in the breeze. "Thank you, Milla."

'_Even this-... no, I'm missing something. I'm forgetting something. I'm not tellin' Kiyoko somethin' she needs. There's some part of life-... that's just not comin' to me. Fuck. Ugh.'_

'_Perhaps I was broad enough to actually be influential, somehow. Maybe she actually gets it. Maybe she don't. I hate this shit…'_

And so, Milla set the precursor for centuries to come. In her ignorance, she laid the ironwork and stone foundation for the rise and fall of an empire.

From the boundless blue sky above, somewhere far invisible to the human eye, someone all but invisible, just like gravity and time, giggled without noise.

Their eyes were keen on the Hakurei heir. She saw and heard Milla's suggestion, and everything seemed far more simple than it had any right to be.

She got the 'something' she needed, and an idea kicked around in her head.

In the light of all of this, she'd not even let the wind's whispers carry her realization. Some day, the land will feel it, and its recursions. For now, it was time to relax and look smug about the whole thing to no one in particular.

Milla stood there, amidst the now-silence between her and Kiyoko.

There was the idle speak of villagers in the background, on nearby roads, and in the near houses. Wind made the homes creak slightly. Tees shimmered upon distant green-golden plains.

Both the girls took in the fullness of the day.

Despite all the bad in the world, they had the colors of the village, and the brightness of sunny days. The cool, relaxed nature of overcast days. The awkward days they'd spend together trying to hide from the rain, both refusing to go home.

'_I ain't welcome at the castle. I'm just some shitty mage. My mom and dad would be all over her 'cause she's royalty, and the moment they leave, they'd take all their nervous bullshit out on me.'_

'_Best solution? Fuck both those places.'_

They also had each other.

"So." Kiyoko, somewhat puzzled by Milla's sudden vague sulking, reached into her pocket. "I found a small turtle by the pond." She held out the little turtle for it to be seen...

"Oo— ooh, holy shit." Instantly, Milla beamed down at it. "Woah! Y'just— carried that in yer pocket…?"

'_...Man. I wish turtles looked cuter. They're a little cute, but… man. Not like pictures'd have ya believe.'_

"You should create turtle magic, Milla." Kiyoko proposed.

"Tu— turtle magic, ze…?" Milla was unimpressed by the idea. "How the hell'd— no, that don't _exist._ Don't make me bop ya."

"I'll bop you." Kiyoko advanced closer.

Milla brought her staff up defensively. "Ooh— s'that a challenge, ze? I'm gonna freakin' club ya, y'elf!"

_Magick Magician Milla!_

The sun was high in the air.

As a summer breeze cooled Milla, she bit into her ice cream. "Mmh…" It was mint-green pistachio. Expensive, but…

Kiyoko walked beside her, with a vanilla cone. The Hakurei heir had a right to all property in the village, so they'd gotten their ice cream for free.

Of course, were she ever too disruptive, there would probably be a coup, or attempted assault on her. If not that, a stern talking-to by the current head, and political reparations for damages. Including but not limited to unending indentured servitude, among both lighter and harsher punishments.

But, no one cared if she demanded her friend a pistachio cone. When you were only an ice cream maker, you cut a loss like that.

Kiyoko was especially an intimidating figure amidst the villagers, be they the Hakurei who moved in and built this town, or the mere plain humans who were 'graced' with the opportunity to reside here. In public, her stoic demeanor was considered a volume of the might her role exuded.

'_...She might be stoic, an' she might be gettin' stronger everyday, but she's sensitive. She just don't bother with people she knows she wouldn't like. That's a lotta them.'_

As they went, Milla turned to Kiyoko, who quietly ate her ice cream on the path next to her. "Yer gonna make that vendor piss 'emself one a' these days."

Kiyoko snorted. "...I hope not."

They walked down the dirt road which passed the Hakurei Castle's front stairs. At the other end of this long, sun-cast street was the Misty Lake, which lay partially in the bounds of their village.

The Hakurei Village as a whole extended from the sunflower field to the west, all the way to the eastern Misty Lake. Its borders were defended by the mere presence of the many Hakurei.

Yet, the far borders were far more volcanic and contested in nature than many would like. The only reason the warriors of faith weren't being pushed further into the village and abandoning structures, was because they were aggressive in fighting back. Particularly, this kind of violence happened at the southern border.

'_Awfully weird shape for a village, but… this is an awfully crappy place fer a village, too!'_

"Who the heck decided to make the village like, an _eye_ shape, anyway?" Milla wondered aloud. "Yer good wit' that history guff, Kinky. They teach ya that?"

Kiyoko gave her a strange look, before smiling. "...Well, I'd heard the eye shape was a suggestion from one of the youkai sages at the time of the village's settlement."

"Oh, good, so we're a buncha assholes then, ze." Milla rolled her eyes.

"...I don't know about _that._" Kiyoko smiled harder. "But, my mother was told that it'd be easier to defend the upper and lower curves of the eye, due to their shape. As in, if we ever fell back, there's a front to fall back _from,_ without sustaining losses. Regarding the sides, they're intentionally stretched thin because their inherent wide spread is an advantage. If we had to abandon those, we could still recede into the village's heart."

Brows focused, Milla nodded. "Wouldn't like… hmm." She thought that perhaps a crescent shape would be better, but that would assume their foe came from one direction. "Can't help but feel somethin's off, but I can't argue there."

'_For the most part, they— do— come from one direction. But, real broad all-around borders might be real weak in flanks, so… nnh.'_

They weren't going anywhere in particular. _'We're pro'lly gonna get to the lake. I hope we get ta the lake 'fore we stop. It'd look cool…'_

Said lake was a good source of food paired aside agriculture. While the lake itself wasn't entirely enshrouded by Hakurei control, they had more than enough to consider it their 'turf'.

"How's your family treating you, Milla?" Kiyoko asked.

Milla took pause. "...Uuh. Well. Mom's kinda dead inside as usual. Dad's still a dick."

"Ah." Kiyoko stared ahead, down the long path, accented by the many buildings around them. "My own father… is tending the battlefields, while my mother continues to reign. My studies have been progressing. I've been learning of the powers I have in my grasp."

"Oh, yeah." Milla perked up. "Your teach. He still a nice dude?"

"Yeah." Kiyoko nodded. "He's been kind. He's not as strict anymore."

"Not as strict anymo~re, huh." Milla was immediately suspicious. "Well, just make sure he ain't a fuckin' creep. I _know_ that dude's like, _fifty."_

Kiyoko rolled her eyes. "I'll make sure, Milla. I ask you again: did your dad-"

"No~." Milla grinned back. "No one _freakin'_ raped me, ze. I know people _get_ raped though, I know people enter relationships that _might as well be rape,_ 'cause they're so bad for 'em, and for their life."

Kiyoko ran a hand through her own black bangs, parting them. The wind had blown them into her eyes. "You just seem awfully insistent. I know you care about my safety, but..."

"Well…" Milla stared at her ice cream. "Yeah. Guess I kinda overdo it, but… this place is fuckin' nuts, Kinky. I feel like _I_ could get raped or hung any other day. You see how some of the scummier Hakurei men keep a gaggle of cuties and princess-lookin' bitches around?"

"I-... I don't really-..." Kiyoko looked uncomfortable. "You speak of these situations, but I-..."

Milla took a lick of her ice cream, and a bite.

Kiyoko continued. "I know such situations are hidden from me in particular. Nor am I so adventurous as to simply witness them, in my daily activities. And..."

She levelled her gaze on Milla. "I wouldn't let anyone fu- fuck with you. Even if they were from the castle, or a friend of my parents."

Milla flicked her own gaze up. "Y'say that _now._ But-... look. If worst came ta worst, and you couldn't do jack, I'd just kill myself. Ain't no one gonna dick me if I'm dead, yeah?"

"What if he syphons you?" Kiyoko returned. "Or, she, depending."

"I think ya underestimate the capacity a' which I can kill myself really quickly." Milla grinned back. "Bodies are fragile."

"They could keep you alive with healing magic." Kiyoko returned. "...If I didn't keep you away from harm, and you couldn't get out of it yourself…"

"Well, guess I just suck." Milla resigned herself. "Hope he has a nice dick, at least."

Kiyoko snorted, and grinned. "I— I guess that'd be one way of looking at that. And— again, inhuman lust isn't exclusive to males. A wry, sadistic female could ensnare you too."

"Yeah, well, the guys're at least _openly_ douchebags, so my mind defaults to them." Milla supposed. "But I don't doubt there's some weird S 'n' M shit, too. Whatever, honestly."

"Yeah." Kiyoko also let it go. "...Still. I'd do whatever I could do. At this point…"

They came up to the lake's edge. Various houses were built on its shore, piers stretching out into the Misty Lake's midst.

"Milla. Am I your best friend?" Kiyoko questioned.

...Milla leaned her head back. "You really gotta ask?"

"Do you trust me?"

"...Enough to waste my time wit'cha." Milla offered. "I think it's awful late to be askin' both them questions."

"I know." Kiyoko stared into the full water ahead. "I just— I wanted to make sure, we were on the same page. I know you're _my _best friend. Perhaps my only friend. The maidens of the castle… are shallow, boring, or otherwise flanderized."

...Milla nodded. "Yeah. I got lots a' acquaintances these days too. Don't do a whole lotta _talking,_ though."

No one other than Kiyoko, could Milla just talk so candidly and openly to. Sure, there were villagers she could cuss off and be crude towards, but they wouldn't share the history or open mind that Kiyoko possessed.

The water ahead was deep. Ice floated along it, despite the summer breeze. The air over the lake was cold, and spoke of an otherworldly, beautiful contrast of color and temperature.

It made Milla think and wonder. This irregular sight, and the coldness. The surroundings were all bare and plain barren plains. The cold also made her think of unreal megastructures, and formality.

'_...One day, I'd like ta explore the Hakurei castle. If only to sate my curiosity.'_

It was so satisfying, staring out the lake, marvelling at some manner of implacable potential in her own mind. Adventure called Milla, and she so desperately wanted to answer.

Boots clicked on a nearby pier. A tall, bearded man in torn and worn Hakurei regalia lumbered towards the shack set up atop the water at the pier's edge. He was one of the many fishermen.

Milla scanned the coast.

"Aa— hey…!" Some maiden looked down at her own red-white outfit, jaw-dropped. _"Terada~!_ You soaked me~!"

"Woohoo~!" A teen-looking man with fair brown hair sprinted off, away from the shallows and onto the grass patch before the dirt path. "I did it!"

"Get your ass _back here!_ Terada~!"

...As the couple ran off, Milla turned her gaze to the water.

Amidst the ice on its surface, there were large crafts. Or rather, 'large' compared to the entire lake. In an ocean, they'd perhaps be considered yachts or rafts.

Their engineering was dubious, however. With sails derived from the same paper used for lanterns, the shoji-bodied crafts bobbed atop the lake's surface. When the wind settled, so did they.

There were more plain, non-shoji-bullshit boats too. Those were the fishermen.

The boats with hulls of angular shoji were the war crafts. Wooden constructs that patrolled the water, keeping it clear of hostile youkai. There _were_ passive types of monster amidst the waves, and those familiar with the lake insisted sorely that those youkai be spared for now, in favor of pressing matters.

Why? _'Well, s'cause they produce shit, of course! Mermaids, clam girls, killer oysters an' killer fish, they all make shit you can't find anywhere else. Real boon to the economy. We kill those youkai, we kill our economy. We ain't that retarded yet, now.'_

'_...Not like those stupid lookin' killer fish're gonna hop outta the lake anytime soon, either.'_

"The maiden of the Ha family is on that ship." Kiyoko pointed to the mid-lake anti-youkai craft.

"Aah, that stick in the mud." Milla snorted. "...Can't help but feel that's off."

"That's what now?" Kiyoko didn't quite understand what she said, having misheard it over the wind.

"Just—" Milla thought she wanted elaboration. "That Ha-family what's-her-face is kind of, like, an arrogant retard. Just doesn't seem fitting to give military control over _waters,_ somethin' so aggressive, passive, yet fluid and wise, to someone so… y'know, _shallow._ Water's deep!"

Kiyoko snorted. "You might be right. But, this is the title she'll be granted when she comes of age. To her family's horror, perhaps. Yet, not one single human can intervene so heavily on matters of personal business and interest."

Milla smirked. "Tell me about it..."

As for the actual amount of combat the boats saw, it was really little. Neither tengu nor oni really cared about capturing a lake. To them, it offered no strategic advantage, even if it was a resource for the Hakurei.

'_Tengu probably would call it a puddle, and oni might call it low ground.'_

"I'm just about of age, now." Kiyoko declared. "...I am to be put through the coming of age trial in a week or two."

Milla took pause. She'd never given this much thought, but the event was creeping up.

Before the public, the Hakurei heir would execute a youkai as the beginning to her true training. Milla had heard stories of the event's history.

'_Her mom an' dad're gonna find her the kindest-looking youkai imaginable. She's gonna have to run a katana through its throat.'_

It was the first step to making a legend of their child. Every Hakurei ruler was supposed to have intense, overwhelming spiritual authority; and to do so, they also had to be legends amongst their own kind.

'_It's not too hard to craft an image fer your kid, by forcin' them to do shit and makin' everyone watch. Man…'_

Milla wondered. "Kink—... Kiyoko."

"Mmm?"

"After your parents get tighter on your bullshit…" Milla looked her over, and swallowed. "You're gonna find _some way_ ta hang with me, right?"

"Of course not." Kiyoko shook her head. "It's completely impossible. I must wipe my mind of the past. Who are you, again?"

...Milla gave her a stink-eye. "Girl."

Kiyoko's face was gingerly overtaken by a big grin. "Sorr— sorry. More seriously, um… I— I don't really know. I don't know what my studies contain, after my… initiation to proper heirdom."

'_I wonder…'_ Milla got to thinking about the ceremony, herself.

"I also don't really care for, um, having to kill a youkai _determined_ innocent." Kiyoko stared down at the wood pier nearby. "The fact that it's made blatant that they are innocent… it's incredibly cruel. I know I'm not supposed to think anything of it, and I know you'd say this is just life's cruelties, but…"

She looked up at Milla. "If—... I just—... I don't want to take a life. I've been thinking about it. What it'd be like to actually kill someone. Someone who I was told had a family, a child to care about, and a loved one. I—... I thought of, like… I thought of you.

"I thought, 'what if Mill—... what if _you_ were found in excess practice of magic'? Or, worse, if you angered an official who wanted you for mating or service purposes. What if _you_ were then determined youkai? Would I have to, one day, execute you in such a similar way? Just because of the public's… ignorance?"

"Mmh." Milla could level with that.

'_It's fucked up. Actual okay youkai might die all the time. I've met a few, I know they ain't all claws and teeth and anger. But, no one believes that fairy tale shit. There's those who deserve death, and 'cause we're fightin' a war against some of the ones that do, and we're all so damn needlessly scared, we just… we just kill all a' them.'_

'_No one has to see or feel the outcome, but… damn it, something depressing happened out there 'cause of it. Bad shit happens in the dark, and 'cause we'll write the history books, it'll stay that way.'_

It was a well-known prospect. The civilian murdered for circumstances they _knew_ left them innocent, but they had no way of _proving_ their innocence. When it came to the government's judgement- in this case, the Hakurei clan's- it wasn't about what the _victim_ knew. It was about what _everyone_ knew. If all they knew was that the accused was a youkai, nothing else mattered, and thus, nothing else about the context _would _or _could_ exist.

At the same time, not only could she not name anything specifically depressing, but even then, it wouldn't be related to her life at all. She wouldn't _have_ to be sad about it; in fact, she had no reason _to be_ sad about it.

Except, she imagined herself getting fucked over too. She imagined Kiyoko maybe one day being fucked over for a large-scale misunderstanding. Any arbitrary little thing could spell the end of this taste of life they clung to.

'_It's crazy all-around. It's totally crazy.'_

'_I dunno what I even did as a kid, practically. I can't think of a time before I got ta really know Kinky here. An' her life's still so… jaded, as it is. Boring and confiscated. She's on a one-path track to being another cog in the works of some shitty clan no one likes being a part of. Some parts of it are necessary, but god damn it— can't we just fuckin' think things out!? Maybe show each other… just, a grain, of care?'_

No one would dare just walk up to Milla and Kiyoko and speak to them. Particularly because, many have tried to accost Kiyoko before, and many have failed.

But, Milla knew from her time sauntering the village alone that generally, might made right. Women had a specific role, as did men. Disobeying tradition spelled doom for your family; the only half-exception being the still-recent imported westerners.

'_Dumbasses threaten me daily. There's places in the village I can't go, or I'm just automatically some dude's mistress, or dead. I can't so much as sit in a diner without gettin' kicked out 'cause a Hakurei— be it maiden or priest guy— hates the cut a' my jib.'_

"Y'know…" Milla spoke up. "What if… what if I found you a way? A way outta havin' to butcher some random wimpy youkai?"

Kiyoko shook her head. "I'm afraid if you tried that, I'd have to butcher _you_ in turn. As in, they'd replace the sacrifice with you, and…"

"I'm thinkin'..." Milla considered this. "We'd need some way… ta enact a _teleportin' spell."_

"Milla— really, don't." Kiyoko shook her head. "I don't want you to die. If we need to carry on through the death of others, then—... it's the fault of society, not ours. Especially in this instance."

"...Yeah." Milla could agree. "Still. It sucks. An' it'd be about time I like, _applied my magic._ I mean, if it fucks up—"

"The fault could be blamed on the _entire_ westerner populace, cementing you all as youkai conspirators and would-be traitors." Kiyoko proposed. "...Perhaps the outcome. I can't let you do it, Milla."

Milla stared at the grass before the lake.

'_Well. We'll both think it over, in the days ta come, I guess.'_

Kiyoko put a hand on Milla's shoulder. "...How about we go have some fun?"

Milla smirked at Kiyoko. "Fun, huh? ...Yeah. Today's been kind of a downer, huh."

"It's not our fault." Kiyoko contested. "It's this village's. Its weakness, its… stupidity. Some—..." Her eyes got slightly wet, as she became excited. "Someday, Milla. We'll… we'll show this village how it's done. Together."

Milla's heart beat harder. "...Woah. What's got you all worked up?"

"This-..." Kiyoko shut her eyes. "This could be the last two weeks we have to spend together. Before life catches me. I—..." A tear ran down her right cheek. "I don't want to wa- waste it."

...Milla swallowed.

'_She… she might be right.'_

"Y'know what?" Milla gave her a smile. "Yeah. Let's not waste this shit."

_Magick Magician Milla!_

_Di- ding._ Milla strolled into the diner.

It was owned by the Aoyama family, one of the many variant sub-clans which served under the Hakurei. A village and clan so big couldn't be unified in its entirety, after all.

It was rustic, plains visible out the back of it, and the lake in the background behind her.

But, right now, she wasn't Milla.

She was Mi, Youkai Magician. When she turned this beige robe inside-out, it was a flashy blue one with gold trim and sparkly, reflective fibers. A little something she and Kiyoko stole from a western baron one day.

Around the back of the Aoyama-owned diner, Kiyoko was making her way, too.

Kiyoko was clad in a spare pair of Milla's pants, and her long black hair was done up in a fluffy pony-tail. A raggy, brown cloak hung off her back like a cape, and her ivory bra— Milla's ivory bra— hung exposed on her chest, as she had no shirt on.

Right now, she wasn't Kiyoko either.

She was Heartway, western youkai thief and skirmisher. Even though she _looked_ eastern, it could be passed off as western youkai strangeness. After all, no sensible easterner would dress as she had.

Back at the diner's front, Milla felt at her own unnaturally fluffed-out brown hair— done up like so to help hide her identity. The entire length of it swayed cartoonishly as she swung her head back and forth.

Right now, her outfit was beige, her skirt was medium-length, and she looked like a generic western chick who wasn't just herself. _'Now… ta set the bait.'_

She came up to the front counter of the diner, where a nearly-bald young man was already giving her a focused stare.

...He slowly stepped up, smiling at Milla. She swallowed.

From behind the counter, she nodded, and grinned harder. "Mmh. Sanji~... you see this shit, Sanji?"

Sanji, a man with short black hair, looked up from the ovens in the back of the open-air diner. When he saw Milla, he grinned. "Oh, yeah?"

The balding young man faced Milla again. "So. What did you come _here_, for?"

"I dunno." Milla grinned back. "Pancakes?"

"Aah. Mmm." The man nodded. "About that. You know _where_ you are, right?"

Milla shook her head. "...No?"

He rolled his eyes, and spoke under his breath. "She- _doesn't_ know. Uh huh…" Then, licking his lips, he held a finger up. "This is _Aoyama_ territory. Actually—... hey. Hey— Rosanne!"

Milla turned to the right. A western girl in a kimono walked up, who looked to be in her teenage years. "Uu- um… ho- how, do you do? What would you like?"

"We aren't serving to her." The man clarified. "I just wanted you to, you know, give her a hint."

...Rosanne looked up at Milla.

She mouthed, 'get out'.

"Rosanne there's a good friend of ours." He nodded. "A real hard worker. She was really apologetic, about breaking one of our stoves when she first came here. Now…" He gave Milla a toothy smile. "Now she's practically part a' the family. Ain't that right, Rosanne?"

Rosanne bowed, her bobby brown hair swaying with her slightly. "Ye— yes, master Aoyama."

"Aa—..." Suddenly, the black-haired Sanji in the back looked up from his stove in obviously faux-surprise. "Um. It—... Kiichi, it broke! The stove!"

Smiling, Kiichi set his sights on Milla. "...Ooh? Really? A sign, then? It only broke when this lady walked in. Could it have been her fault, too?" He looked at Rosanne.

...Rosanne nodded. "Ye— yes. She—... it would have been her…"

"Well?" Kiichi levelled with Milla's gaze. "Awfully shitty of you, to go around back of our place, and kill our stove. Even if it was by accident."

Milla played along. "But—... I didn't."

"You weren't examining the stove, just now?" Kiichi snorted. "You're joking, right? You totally broke it by looking at it, almost. Just like Rosanne, there. You and your western trickery."

Rosanne looked like she was melting in shame, but her face was also blushed. "...Kii— Kiichi—... he— he's a good—"

"You call me _master Aoyama_ in public, Rosanne." Kiichi commanded. "I didn't give you permission to speak, either."

"Hey." One of the men seated at the counter turned his head. "...How much'd it cost to get this cutie?" He gestured to Milla. "Price of the stove, maybe?"

"Pft. No." Kiichi's stare at him was flat. "I only got like, _two_. I need another for _actual _work, not dicking around."

"What? Ugh. You could just _hire_ one, if ya wanted real work. What's the point if you aren't banging _all_ of 'em?"

Kiichi got annoyed with him. "I didn't say I _wasn't!_ But— one is— look— I organize my women how I want to, alright? It's not as wasteful as you think."

Milla looked to the right, past where Rosanne stood next to her.

Two shrine maidens sat at a picnic table of sorts. They gave Milla glares when she looked at them.

"I—..." Rosanne frowned. "Be— be my big sister."

'Run', she mouthed multiple times. 'Run, run, run, run'.

"Aawh." Kiichi smiled genuinely at them. "Rosanne's a real cutie. Actually— you two oughta kiss each other. In fact… right now. And, um…" He pointed at Milla. "I always wanted a girlfriend named _Yuria._ How's that sound?_"_

The maidens behind Milla chuckled, and the man at the counter laughed quietly too. Sanji grinned in the back, still cooking something at the 'broken' stove.

"Yuria, your first job for me, is to kiss Rosanne silly, right here." He practically yelled his command, his voice was so loud and excited, yet level.

Milla smiled, instead. "What if, I _didn't_ do that?"

"You're gonna do that." He decided. "You've gotta repay your debt. Unless, I ought to just hand you to the samurai. They play rough, if you aren't aware of _that,_ either."

"Oh, do they…" One of the maidens somewhere behind Milla spoke under her breath; one with long, smooth black hair and thick black bangs. It wasn't phrased as a question; she was reminiscing about something. "Mmn."

Her friend snorted. "St— stop being pervy, Nahoko-chan..."

"Am I wrong?"

'_I might just be some bitchy, common mage from some shitty country. One that's way in over her head, in a crapsack world she doesn't understand…'_

Ignoring them, Milla nodded at Kiichi. "How about I _don't_ be your bitch, and I just kick your ass instead?"

'_But I won't wag my damn tail, like nothing.'_

Kiichi paused.

The man seated at the counter paused.

Sanji looked up from the stove, brow raised.

The maidens giggled incredulously.

Rosanne had a horrified look on her face, feeling at the collar of her own, blue-white kimono.

'_I have failed, to be a yes-man.'_ She beamed at Kiichi's stunned look.

He beamed back. "Seriously? I can seal your magic, western whore. You were put in this village for us. Not the other way around. Everyone knows this."

"Nnn…" Milla stepped back. "Nnn- hehe- hahaha~h!" Lurching herself back, she laughed into the air, making an effort to be as loud as possible.

Kiichi blinked at her, brows furrowed. "...You won't be laughing. You stepped into my diner. You are _Aoyama_ property."

'_Left behind by us delinquents—…'_

Milla ran her left hand down her body.

_Fwish._ With a spell, her beige robe went inside-out, the brilliant gold and blue displayed to the air.

_Pop!_ With a flare of playful magic, her broom took on the form of an alloy staff, a cartoony, yellow crescent moon poking from what used to be the bell-end.

'—_is a firm "no", giving name to our—'_

Her hair flared green with magic, and she leered ahead at the balding Kiichi.

'_Justice!'_

She aimed her staff ahead. _"Freeze!"_

_FWASH!_ A ball of snow came from her staff's tip, meeting Kiichi's face dead-on and sticking there.

Sanji bolted from around the stove. "You— _bitch!"_ He drew Hakurei talismans, eyes wide.

The two maidens behind Milla got up, one brandishing talismans. Nahoko had needles in each arm instead.

The man seated there drew a silver dagger, standing up and pointing it at Milla.

Rosanne's jaw dropped, and she staggered back.

Sanji threw both hands up, pressing his talismans into a pane of glass-like magic. _"Hakurei God! Hear my-"_

_SMAAAA~SH!_ That's where Kiyoko came in, encroaching from behind. Her bokken smashed down on the back of Sanji's head. _"Ghk…!"_

'_We're breakin' the law!'_

Milla pivoted around-

_Fwi- fwi- fwish!_ Nahoko spun around, red lines drawn in the air by her extended arms, persuasion needles held between each finger.

Crouching beneath her spinning series of slashes, Milla thrust the crescent tip of her staff into Nahoko's stomach.

_KRAK- DI~NG!_ A huge, neon magic star exploded from the tip into Nahoko's stomach, shaking the whole diner.

"_Wh— ghka~!"_ Nahoko flew away, soaring across the diner—

_WHAM- BAM!_ She landed on the picnic table, and it collapsed, taking the food with it.

_Cla- clack!_ Kiyoko leapt atop the counter, and thrust a hand up from her bokken, before herself. _"Psychic Flash!"_

_FWISH!_ Brilliant light echoed through the whole diner. It stretched out from it, into the nearby dirt road, and out into the plains behind the diner. It was brighter than the sun.

_FWASH!_ Right after he wiped his face free of the ice, Kiichi's entire body was frozen solid by the overwhelming light. He was trapped in a block of ice.

"Rr— nnh—" For some reason, the man with the dagger began crying uncontrollably. He felt at his eyes, snot pouring from his nose. "Wh— aa— nn—"

'_We're breakin' the whole damn world!'_

The other maiden with her own talismans stumbled back. "Wh—... aa— ow—..." Milla wasn't even sure what the light _did_ to her.

Coming up to the staggered, crying, dagger-wielding man, Milla thrust her staff forward.

"_Psychic Shock!"_ Milla beamed, twirling her staff around like a windmill, as topaz energy lit along the crescent moon, making it glow.

_Cli- za- zap, zap!_ The tip clinked against his dagger hand, jolting him, forcing him to drop it. "Uuo—"

_ZAP- KAZAP!_ Stopping it abruptly, she shoved the electric crescent into his face. On impact, it made his tears and snot explode out brilliantly in a dance of sparks.

"_Rrgh— hoo— aagh!"_ He fell back onto his ass, clutching his face.

'_Cut apart the tenderness!'_ Milla had the widest smile she'd worn in some time.

"Yhou—" Nahoko rolled off the now deflated table, hair all messy. If her glare could kill, beneath her even black bangs, it would. _"I'll murder you."_

"Aa—" With a whimsically awkward smile, Kiyoko pointed her bokken ahead at the very angry Nahoko. "Mi—... Mi, help!"

Milla pivoted around, and saw the murderously angry maiden.

Nahoko, despite the immensely fierce glare on her face, was a soft-looking woman, with a generous chest. She must've been in her mid-twenties.

_SWISH- SWISH! SWISH!_ As she encroached upon Kiyoko, Nahoko executed a dizzying series of thrusts on the air, spinning around and looking ready to do a flip at any moment as she poked her needles forward repeatedly.

Kiyoko slowly stumbled back, uncertain about guarding the precise jabs—

That's when Milla slid onto her butt, coming in hot along her right, staff aimed up. "P— K! _Balloon!"_

_Fwuu~sh!_ A big, yellow balloon expanded into existence before the tip of Milla's staff. Kiyoko and Nahoko couldn't even see one another through it.

Glaring at it with venomous certainty, Nahoko decided to stab her needles into it. The Hakurei clan didn't really _do_ balloon parties, so she didn't know what to expect.

_KAPOP!_ The blast from the balloon was crazy. Milla was sent rolling on her side. "Oough…"

"_Hyaa—"_ Nahoko was sent flying—

_SMAAAA~SH!_ Kiyoko was suddenly behind her, cleaving her bokken wide into Nahoko, against the velocity which she was tossed at.

_Cla- clack!_ Nahoko was forced to land on her sandals, but she quickly began to collapse—

'_Hurtin' like hell… even when hurtin' like hell…'_

Stumbling up, Milla ran up, as Nahoko fell. Nahoko's fierce glare was broken, her intelligent eyes conveying the sheer pain of Kiyoko's bokken swing.

'_Even if I end up losin' everything…'_

_THUNK._ When Nahoko landed on her knees, Milla thrust her staff right up into her, tip under her chin-

_FHUM- DI~NG!_ The chunky flare of a powdery, exploding cartoon star erupted beneath Nahoko's chin. _"Khu— aanh—"_

'_I can't be tainted!'_

_WHA- CRUNCH!_ When Nahoko was back into standing, the butt of Milla's staff and edge of Kiyoko's bokken met either end of her face, crushing each cheek.

"And _that'll bring—"_ Now speaking aloud, Milla leered with sadistic joy.

Kiyoko had a similar, bloodthirsty beam. _"Psychic Judgement!"_

_CLACK!_ She slammed her bokken into the floor—

_KRAK- FWAA~SH!_ A pillar of raw, holy faith power erupted from the floor, enveloping Nahoko entirely.

"_Eee- aaaa~!"_ Nahoko roared, the raw holy power blowing through her body, attacking her on a level not physical, but spiritual.

"We ain't warmin' up to the _big shots!"_ Millia swung her staff around. "We're part of an _uprising!"_

She saw Rosanne on the floor nearby, eyes wide. Lurching down, Milla made a clenched fist, holding it to Rosanne's face. "Raise yer _clenched fist…"_

"It is us." Kiyoko's young voice boomed through the diner. "We're the ones… who'll make _judgement."_

_Fwish._ The raw, holy pillar of pure white went out, as a flicker.

_thud._ Nahoko dropped to her knees, then onto her side, needles abandoned.

Kiyoko and Milla slid up to one another, touching their backs together. _"Jud— ge— ment!"_

'_We're such fuckin' nerds, holy shit! Fuck yeah!'_

Rosanne blinked, in absolute awe.

...Blinking, brushing green bangs aside, Milla crouched before Rosanne properly. "If ya ran, you have anywhere ta go?"

Rosane stuttered. "Uu— um… te— technically—"

"How long you been here? This got any real contract? Samurai know?" Milla placed a hand on her shoulder.

...Rosanne shook her head. "Nn— no. A— a few months. Family— doesn't know… and— this isn't exactly— code— codified, but—"

"Get the fuck outta here." Milla stood. "Yer free."

"But— there's someone else." Rosanne stood, and made for the door. "Uu- upstairs."

Kiyoko moved. "Anyone else in the house?"

"Not— not right now." Rosanne confirmed. "But— at evening—"

"Good thing we ain't stickin' around!" Milla grinned. "Get outta here, kid."

Rosanne jogged off, escaping.

"Wha—" From upstairs, a girl with short black hair, wearing a similar kimono to Rosanne's, descended. "What's— going—"

"You're free!" Kiyoko ran up to her, and gingerly pulled on one of her arms, making an endearingly exaggerated motion to do so. "Go!"

"What…!?" The lanky, black-haired girl looked around—

Milla came up to her, framed by the small-scale devastation, and some chunks falling from the roof aside herself. "We beat up the Aoyama! Get the hell outta here— run until you're on the main street!"

The girl bolted, following almost the same path Rosanne made, out the open-air front of the diner.

With that, Milla and Kiyoko gave each other a smile and a nod, and they moved around the back of the central counter. It was pilfering time.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

No longer disguised, Kiyoko and Milla sat atop crates in one of their now many go-to alleyways amidst the Hakurei territory.

"Om…" Kiyoko was enjoying a spiral lollipop she'd taken from the Aoyama-owned and operated diner.

"Mmm…" Milla was enjoying some actual bread, because quality baked goods were rare. While the Aoyama were generally assholes, they meant money, and their products were quality.

'_That went off without a hitch, that time. Kinky didn't even hafta cast heal-a-whole-bunch on me…'_

That was just one of many times they've tormented local properties for the sake of it. _'Of course, we choose the dickish ones. Kinky scopes the place out as her heir self, and they kiss her ass fer awhile. When she just hangs out and eats food, they leave her alone, so she can just neutrally watch the place. _

'_Then, after she's out, I mosey in wit' my disguise when we're both ready. She comes in second, so she ain't so suspect.'_

"Man." Kiyoko held her lollipop away, so she could speak. "We're… we've become really good at this. Remember the first time?"

"Pft." Milla snorted. "Yeah. What a fuckin' cryin' shame that was. Had our hearts in our throats and everything. But, we still _did _it."

"Yeah." Kiyoko nodded… "Now, raiding a _whole_ diner, in broad daylight, is just… a thing we _do._ It barely means anything to our power."

Milla smiled, at that.

'_We've both… really come a long way. I know a ton a' shit-tier magic, and Kinky… has some mildly useful things. Well— healing is omega goddamn useful, but her other skills are kinda situational still. Which is good, 'cause mine are all blunt and to the point!'_

It was now well into the afternoon. The sun would be setting in just a few more hours.

'_Fighting people, exploring the village, goin' places I normally couldn't ever go…'_

'_It makes me feel so alive. It makes me forget how shitty the world is. It makes me forget how shitty people are.'_

"Tomorrow," Kiyoko decided, "we should do something similar again."

"So soon?" Milla wondered… "Maybe we should take it easy, at a library 'er somethin'..."

"...Maybe." Kiyoko consented. "I mean… we've _defeated_ a couple samurai before."

"I feel like, after a hit, there's just gonna be more shit than we've dealt with before. Personally, I like my hymen _where it is_, thanks." Milla grinned. "Free from dicks, needles, talismans, or swords…!"

"That's— fair." Kiyoko grinned back. "Well…"

She stood from where she sat, getting off the wood crate. "How about we take these goodies somewhere nicer-looking? Maybe on the _other_ end of the lake from the Aoyama parade. Around the Ha territory."

Milla perked up at that idea. "Y'know what? Yeah. That sounds good. Should I grab a book or two?"

"Yeah." Kiyoko really liked that idea. "...We can read and eat and stuff until nightfall, on one of the eastern plains along the lake. Then, we can hang around the village at night, until we get tired."

"Sounds like a plan." Milla had no complaints. There really wasn't anything she'd rather be doing.

So, Kiyoko lifted the goodie bag, while Milla went to go grab some books from home, which was near this particular alley.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Here they were.

'_Finally.'_ Milla smiled at the plain.

They were on the far side of the lake, on its barren, genuinely sandy shore. The last part needed clarification, because much of the lake's shores were simply grass that cut abruptly into water, with hardly even mud between.

Kiyoko continued onto the grass across the lake, and Milla followed.

'_...Feeling so pleasantly isolated, almost makes me wanna cry. It's so good.'_

Passing between a small gate composed by trees, they came to a large expanse.

Somewhere, far to the right, was the property of the tengu. It was the very edge of their property, as most of their infrastructure was either behind or adjacent to the oni mountain.

The tengu and oni weren't necessarily teamed up against the humans. They didn't like dealing with each other either. Ergo, the far borders of tengu-to-human territory weren't often a point of any real contention.

The big thorn in everyone's side was the oni. _'Fer obvious reasons, 'cause the oni are fuckin'... omega gorilla men, while tengu are just kinda fuckfast. I mean, tengu are fuckfast an' fuckstrong, but oni are like… __**fuck**__strong.'_

To the left, however, was wild woods, belonging to no one.

They weren't going to go too terribly far out. "This looks good." Kiyoko sat down near a tree. "Mmn."

Milla plopped down next to her. _'Yeah, this is a real good spot…'_

Putting down the bag of goodies, Kiyoko put her hands on the band that held it shut. "What kinda books did you—"

_fwish._ The bushes rustled nearby.

_SWISH!_ In a moment, something passed by, and the bag was gone.

_WHACK!_ A stone bounced off Kiyoko's forehead. "Aa—"

'_Wh— whah, fuck! Fuck!'_

"Nnn~!" Pausing before them, the yellow-haired cat girl swung the bag over her shoulder, and confirmed the two wouldn't follow easily. _"Sorry! Bye!"_

She sprinted off with impossible speed. "Wh—" Before Milla could so much as think of uttering a spell, she was gone.

Kiyoko stood up. "That—" She realized it was gone. _"Fuck…"_

'_...Well. Our fault for goin' somewhere exotic, I guess.'_

'_What kinda cat girl even was that? No—... that speed. That was a tiger girl. God damn it.'_

"...I—..." Kiyoko was now really disheartened. "I'm sorry, Milla. I'm… I'm too weak. It was all my fault."

"Nah, I shoulda been wiser about the locale." Milla exhaled. "...We still got the _books_, at least."

"I guess." Kiyoko stared at the floor. Her forehead was openly bleeding, the stone that had struck it having done so with apparent force.

'_...Sometimes, it's like she doesn't even notice she's gettin' hurt. Kiyoko's made of some tough shit, I swear.'_

"Y'got a little, uh…" Milla grinned, and rubbed the spot on her own forehead where the injury would be.

At first, Kiyoko had bemused confusion, before she copied Milla's motion.

"Oh." She realized she was injured. "Ah. Yeah, it stings…"

"Just?" Milla grinned. That was a pretty big rock the youkai chucked…

"Yeah." Kiyoko seemed fine, though. "Damn it…" She was more upset about all the food.

_woosh._ Then, someone else floated down before them.

"Aw, c'mon." Milla had a drained look. "You here for the fuckin' books, too? Can you even _read_ English?"

...The woman who had floated down appeared confused.

She was tall. Her dress was black, forming a series of laces across a chest contained by a white undershirt, or undersweater of a sort. Her hair was a curious, golden brown.

"...Um. No?"

She landed on the ground, her black boots pressing down on the grass.

"Byakuren Hijiri." She greeted the two. "I saw what happened."

'_This chick… the nun that goes around in the fuckin' flying shrine, I think. I've never met her before… but I sure as hell have heard of her.'_

"And?" Milla towed her along.

She snorted.

Looking along the floor, Byakuren saw it. Thick footprints in the grass, and in the dirt patches in the distance. They were well-defined, the youkai having used great force to escape.

_woosh._ Byakuren floated off.

'_...Wonder if there's a catch. There's almost always a catch.'_

Watching a fully grown woman just _fly off_ was rather surreal, Milla had to admit. _'Magic's fuckin' weird.'_

Amidst the sunny field and their seat by the tree, Milla and Kiyoko found themselves at an awkward silence after the burglary.

"Nnn." Kiyoko stretched… "Maybe I should heal myself."

"Freakin'— probably." Milla smiled.

'_What an awkward situation! I don't like waitin' on this nun, even if it would've been worse if she didn't show up at all.'_

"Anyway." Kiyoko got back on topic—

_Fwoash._ Holy, white light emanated from her body for a moment, as she repaired her forehead. "What kinda books did you bring?"

"...Oh. Some novels that I thought would be more interestin' with us both takin' the piss of them." Milla reached for some of the books. "Just so we don't _run out,_ I got like, _four,_ wit' the money I got workin' my _magic_ 'round town."

"Also the money we stole, when we did that." Kiyoko noted.

"Yeah- shush." Milla reached for one of the books…

Most of them were of Europe, or other western topics and settings. Milla was admittedly quite morbidly curious of the rest of the world, outside of the totally accurate magical Japanese battleground she lived in.

"Aah. This one's that Alice in Wonderland book." Milla took pause at it. "Oughta be a barrel 'a laughs."

"A barrel of laughs." Kiyoko smiled at the expression… "An _entire_ barrel."

"One _whole_ barrel." After Milla opened it up and randomly flipped around the first few pages—

_woosh._ Byakuren descended again, the snack bag held. "Here."

"Aa— already…?" Kiyoko's brows were raised. "Wow…"

As Kiyoko accepted the bag, Byakuren leaned towards her. "Are you hurt?"

"...Nah." Kiyoko shook her head.

While Kiyoko opened the bag, to make sure the food was alright, Byakuren took a step back.

Milla furrowed her brows, at Byakuren's oddly eternally sedate expression…

"You're the heir to the Hakurei throne, aren't you?" Byakuren addressed Kiyoko. "Or rather… _the_ Hakurei shrine maiden?"

"...What's it to you?" Kiyoko had her brows furrowed.

Byakuren snorted at her suspicion. "Aah. You know of the _coming of age_ _ritual,_ don't you?"

While Byakuren traveled all of Japan, she was familiar with the more notable customs of the various clans and regions. As she was more youkai than human now herself, she began frequenting the Hakurei-affiliated regions more and more, gauging the youkai.

"What about it?" Kiyoko's suspicion didn't let up.

"Oh…" Byakuren tilted her head back. "I do have to ask. Are you enthusiastic, about killing youkai? Do you resent them?"

"Aa— as far as I know, um, no." Kiyoko shook her head. "Ab— about resenting them, that is. I don't wanna kill anybody…"

Byakuren took pause, at this.

'_What the hell game is she playin'?'_

"Here." Byakuren kneeled down before the sitting Kiyoko, and drew something from one of her pockets…

It was a weird stone, shaped like a ball with a disk through the middle. It was pinkish.

She held it out by the string, for Kiyoko to take. "It's yours."

"...What is it?" Kiyoko didn't take it yet, still untrusting.

"It's a sealing circle stone." Byakuren provided. "Albeit, the technique associated is unlike the sealing circles practiced by the Hakurei. It allows you to pass bound and weakened youkai into a space beyond this world. It casts them into the bowels of Hokkai, a remote wasteland within the demon realm Makai. There, the youkai can find new lives amidst other youkai.

"Free from the two-way shackles of fear that bind both humanity and youkai."

...She scratched her own cheek. "Or, um, to put it into plainer words, it sends them to another, safer dimension for them."

Kiyoko stared at the mystical, pink stone. It looked sort of like candy, even. "How's this—... relate to my— the ritual?"

"Perhaps, you can find a way to use it before or during the execution." Byakuren figured. "...Do exercise caution. I don't believe interception of the ritual has ever been attempted before."

'_This nun…'_

'_I really don't like the vibe she gives off. It's seedy. Uncertain.' _Somehow, Milla got an innate 'douchebag' vibe from this woman. _'If nothin' else, controlling.'_

"...I'll _think_ about it." Kiyoko gave Byakuren at least that. "How does it work?"

She took it from Byakuren, and stood. It glowed with energy when she fed it with magic, pink light blossoming forth.

"You press your hand out, like when inciting any basic spell." Byakuren offered her own palm to the air. "Then, you focus your magic into the stone. Last, you utter, _'return to darkness'."_

..._Fwish._ The pink-white stone glowed with power in Kiyoko's hands. Grinning, she aimed it forward, pressing her other hand into the air, upon a yin-yang sigil that popped in to receive her palm. _"Return to darkness!"_

_VHIR._ A black, purple and yellow yin-yang gate opened beneath Byakuren.

Except, Byakuren slid out of range, eyes wide and smile fierce. "Aa—... don't use it on _me…! _Wh— why would you do that…!?"

Kiyoko pouted back. "Wa— was just testin' it out…"

"Don't use that on people you don't plan to send to _another entire dimension."_ Byakuren chastised her. "It's the same as not running a katana through something you don't plan on killing. It's—... while a step below deadly, it's still very serious!"

"So." Milla spoke up, finally voicing her thoughts. "Yer a magician, ain't ya?"

...Byakuren focused her gaze on Milla. "...Mmm? Yes?"

"The hell're you gettin' outta this?" Milla asked outright. "There ain't anything free in this world. You might be a nun, but people don't just walk around handin' out free shit, unless it's worth nothin' to begin with."

Byakuren would have raised a brow, but she was nothing if not disciplined in keeping her expression pleasant and inexpressive. "Nun…? And—... well, yes. I _do_ have a reason. It's because—..."

...She swallowed. "After my time working around, and in relation to youkai… I don't believe they're all _that_ bad. I admit, many today are still in need of violence, and in this era of the world, the only sensible solution for communities _is_ such violence. Yet… I believe now, that many youkai are simply in need of help. Guidance and teaching."

Her stare rested on Kiyoko. "Who else to preach this to, than the upcoming, still open-minded Hakurei heir?"

Kiyoko's eyes were slightly narrowed. "I um, don't like how you put that."

"At least, I hope you're those things." Byakuren put her arms on her own hips. "Typically, the heirs are always… _particular_ people, and I attribute that to their upbringing. Therefore, you wouldn't be so particular yet yourself."

"How do we know y'ain't just usin' her, then?" Milla contested. "Feedin' off her naivety?"

"...If my kindness isn't a good example, then nothing is." Byakuren shook her head. "It's your most convenient solution to avoiding unnecessary murder. If you don't feel like using it, you don't have to."

She looked down at Milla, who was seated next to Kiyoko. "I'd also say, a transport stone like the kind I handed out is truly worth little to me. As an aged magician— _magic practitioner,_ um, opening portals and transporting beings isn't exactly a difficult or harrowing feat. It may see more value in your hands, for your specific needs, but it's worth little to me.

"Admittedly, I made it for you, Kiyoko."

...Kiyoko held the glowing, pink stone in her palm again. "I—... see."

'_If nothin' else, this lady's pushin' an agenda a' some kind. I just can't shake this feeling, that we really shouldn't trust her too hard.'_

Byakuren reinforced her smile. "Good evening. Be safe now. It's getting late."

_fwish._ With that, Byakuren flew up amidst the light of the setting sun, and away.

Kiyoko had hung the stone around her neck. It was fashioned like a necklace of sorts.

"If nothing else, she may just be attempting to worm her way into my trust, or into the trust of the council…" Kiyoko figured. "As such… I don't think I'll mention this to anybody."

"No one's beeswax anyway." Milla agreed.

'_I bet that nun's only a buddhist 'cause the whole damn country's practically swept by it. No one'll bat an eye too hard at her magic, 'cause she's religious, ooo~, an' she's serving a faith an' everything. God magic, good, monster magic, bad.'_

'_God, I hate religion.'_ She was tempted to insult faith in general, but she knew Kiyoko was somewhat passionate about it, and didn't want to cause another one of their short-lived arguments.

It wouldn't do her any good to obsess over that sort of thing right now. If she ever wanted to feel bad on demand, she could walk around her house, or the village roads.

'_Really no use, is it…'_ Something like religion was too obsessively drilled into the world's people to be of any contest. Milla could think any smarmy, overarching statement she wanted about it, but she still had to deal with the shit it entailed.

She glanced at the sky, and folded the book to its first page.

'_In any case, I can't wait 'till nightfall. Night on the plains is always so damn comfy. With the both of us here, most youkai that'd dare assault us really couldn't. Especially any one-off fuckfaces who felt like trying their luck so close to Hakurei territory.'_

"Alright." Milla spoke up amidst the contemplative silence. "Think that's enough a' that shit. Let's get started…!"

Blinking, Kiyoko scooted closer. "Yeah. Lemme pull out some snacks, first…"

_Magick Magician Milla!_

It was mid-evening.

The sun had set a good amount of time ago. The western horizon was a glow with the faintest hue of blue, accented by a bed of stars over the hazy, medium-blue arch.

The east horizon was black, nothing but space and sparkling starlight. A vast, but very full sea of absolute contrast. The difference between it and the muddiness of the countryside was definite.

Milla caught an eyeful of the vastness. A sight like this made her grievances melt away in the face of the cosmic scale.

'_Stars. Starlight.'_ It was something Milla was endlessly perplexed by. Stars, the colors and mysticism of the world above her own.

"Mm…" Kiyoko gnawed on a bread loaf, transfixed on the way the land around her was set in shade. The sky was a— comparatively bright— blue-black hue, while the land was almost pure dark. It was a different but comparable mystery, to the distant land cast in a day's bright horizon-generated fog.

'_So few other people, could appreciate somethin' like this. Not without framin' it in some way. Not without some manner a' selfishness, or some underestimation of what it is. Whatever it is. Not like it matters, but how people treat it… it's telling.'_

'_So I think, after framin' it selfishly myself. Not that I could ever convey my understanding without makin' an idiot of myself.'_

'_Some thoughts are yours, and yours alone.'_

...She sighed.

'_Here I am, still thinkin' about how shit life is. Not that it's an uncommon activity 'round these parts— but, can I go a fuckin' day without hating everything around me?'_

"Kiyoko…" Milla spoke up, as she searched the sky. "You ever think about... just—... getting away? From all a' this?"

"That, again?" Kiyoko shook her head. "That's not realistic."

"Of course." Milla knew that. "But—..."

"If we left, I'd be hunted down, at the very least." Kiyoko suspected. "You? At the least, you'd make it out as a peasant of sorts, if you weren't caught by a different fate."

'_Mmh…'_

"I don't think your magic would be appreciated, outside the village." Kiyoko considered. "There's a lot of risk, in using it beyond this land. I'm told there's not nearly as much… _activity_ in other parts of Japan. There's obviously something keeping it that way."

Having to think over the risks and logistics made Milla feel small. _'Yeah. Just—... damn.'_

She searched the stars again.

'_What I'd give, to just live my life out here, starin' at the stars. Not having to put up with people's shit. Just me, a shack in the woods, and my studies. Maybe Kiyoko, too. Yeah. It'd be lonely if Kiyoko weren't there.'_

'_Kiyoko would have her own shack of... of a shrine, maybe, so she can keep doing her thing. Maybe she wouldn't be so big on religion if she was the only damn Hakurei left alive.'_

'_Yeah. That'd be the life. Me and her, alone, goin' to each other's house, sometimes kicking ass. But, the jerks wouldn't be threatening enough to compromise our homes, or anything.'_

Amidst the vague blue, the nothing, the colors, and the distance from civilization, Milla dreamed of a life free of the cruelty and complications. One where she could do whatever she wanted, free of superficial judgment or oppression by society.

But, it was just a fantasy.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

author's note:

don't expect many author's notes (if there are even to be more after this one), but i figured a preface as to what i plan to do with this story would be appropriate

it's getting updated weekly. most of it's done, and as such the update schedule shall not change unless conditions drastically change

it's also not going to have an indefinite run like sendai or FG. it's got a particular plot, and i've got particular things i want to show you— many particular things— but this isn't going to quite be a short story like Organ Jaws or Plus Ultra, either

it's a novel, essentially

...now, for some more minor ramblings related to the story itself:

for those curious, if it wasn't already obvious, it's not going to be as long-winded, chillax iterative as sendai, nor as knee-slappin' back-to-back humor as FG; it's an exploration of the time period, of two characters, and a vague commentary on society's complexity

(all of which is probably of variable chagrin to the majority of my FG readers, again, because it's a vision and a focus far removed from outsider OCmania hijinks)

that said, milla's kind of a kooky girl herself, so maybe this'll be worth a shot for those kinda people!

myself, i wanted very hard to explore this time period, and i felt a substantial amount of hype behind these characters and the general environment

usually, i would prefer with these kinda works to have it _actually done_ before i put out the first chapter, to give myself better command over the whole work, but this should be fine

so, sit back, relax, and as always,

see you all next time


	2. The Real Vanishing Act!

Milla's plain-jane shoes clacked violently against the village road in the evening's midst. Even though the roads here were dirt, her soles clapped against it, kicking up dust in her trail.

She was running to her house, to gather materials. _'Fuckin', god, damn it…'_ Her heart was racing.

Tonight would be the night of the ceremony.

During the setup, Kiyoko wasn't precisely required to be there until the final hours. It was currently just eight, and the sun was just setting, as it was a midsummer's night.

Kiyoko would be needed two hours before it began, and the execution_— _with herself truly as the executioner_—_ would take place on a well-lit platform at midnight, displayed for the people gathered to see under the Hakurei castle's shine.

Until ten o'clock, Kiyoko was allowed to go where she pleased, which meant she'd browse the event grounds; the main street before the castle, the castle itself, and just a couple off-shooting courtyards and areas.

'_We got a few hours— and if I hurry, we might make it!'_

Milla hadn't been able to get an idea or plan in edgewise to Kiyoko leading up to the event, due to the week's circumstances.

'_Somehow, they haven't let her out these past few days— and until then, she'd just kept putting the talk about the ceremony off. Fu~ck, we should've done something sooner. Damn it…!'_

If only the order of things and the societal barriers hadn't gotten between them, she figured. _'If her family wasn't so fuckin' nngh— we could've actually had a word edgewise wit' one another…!'_

Meanwhile, on her own, Milla had shakily thrown together a slapdash attempt at a teleportation spell. _'Only thing I could see workin'— the youkai gets teleported ta the far side of the lake, and bolts straight off. Here I was, thinkin' we could be fancy and have me at the exit ta see them off, but—'_

She wasn't sure what page Kiyoko would be on. She wouldn't be sure where— or what— the youkai would be, who'd be watching— how many— and how the specifics of, well, _everything_ was oriented.

'_Damn it; she could've treated the surface earlier if I knew what surface'd be used— or we could've made a thing— or, fuck…!'_

'_If we wanted ta use that nun's stone, we could've made a fake corpse from some shit or— or something!'_

_Clack!_ Milla made it to her door, and swung the front open.

She lurched into the main room. Upon a chair inside, her father was there, at his desk in the living room.

The room as a whole was quaint. The kitchen-like stuff was on the left from the entrance, and shelves and other common room furnishings were on the right.

Her father's head snapped up from the parchment, surprised by her arrival. "Mi— Milla?" Then, his stare grew firmer. "There you are. You didn't come back for dinner."

"Yeah, whatever." Milla waved him off, shuffling past him—

"You're not going back outside." He decided. "The sun's just about set, as it is."

'_Well, sure.'_ She was a pro at sneaking around and escaping home. This wasn't the first time he resolved an ultimatum so bluntly.

"Nn—" She was about to say 'nope', just on impulse. "Why not?"

"It's dangerous, and there's nothing out there for you." He decided. "You should be in bed in two hours. Why _would_ you?"

She's had this talk with him before. _'He totally does it just to fuck wit' me.'_

"Maybe ta meet _friends."_ Milla recycled some of her previous points. "Look at the night sky."

"Your friends won't be out this late." He declared. "Any 'friend' you'd have who was out this late, especially on _this_ day, is no one you should be friends with. Remember that your magic is an asset. You squander it, and it loses value."

'_You never practiced magic a day in yer life, you old fuckin' phony.'_

He read Milla's souring expression. "Think of it this way. It's like water. In a desert—"

"You _already_ used—"

He began again. _"In a desert,_ water has value, because it is scarce."

"You _already told me_ this anecdote." Milla really didn't want to hear it again.

"I don't think you understand it. Those who live in the desert, they would accept even the warmest, lowest quality water, because they have little water to begin with. They know not of its presentation; the type of glass it may be served in. The same goes for _magic._ If you exude it simply, it will be treated simply, and the market value will decrease."

'_I don't even show off my fuckin' magic…'_

Earlier, she'd made the mistake of only half-lying about her relationship with Kiyoko. She'd said she made friends with _a_ Hakurei: this was good. She said she impressed them with non-charged examples of her magic; or rather, she used it to fool around. She didn't even consider it a big deal to mention.

But, to him, it was; it was a _very_ big deal. The mere _example_ of her magic should be for a fee, if she could help it. He had all sorts of notions about the sacrecy magic _should_ have now, despite the ire he used to have for seeing a glimpse of its demonstration back in Europe.

'_Dude thinks shit changes according to him. That, or he just has so much confidence in himself that it might as well be that way.'_

Even now, she and her mother hardly showed him any of it. Yet, as the authority of the house, he had full confidence that marketing it would be just like marketing any other good. That it was finite, had an exact level of value and therefore supply and demand like that of a baked good or a product.

'_In reality, it's more like a service.' _

'_Cost a' magic arts are determined literally by how many people are doing the working. Considering the village, and how it has a stranglehold on us as a resource essentially, we all receive the same goddamn stipend for being peasants in the village as every other mildly-needed mage.'_

'_Or, in other words: it doesn't matter who I show what and how much. That opportunity passed wit' the first chucklefucks back in Europe. No way you could keep a lie like that running, either. The Hakurei courts got books and shit on our basic knowledge too. Not so easy to make shit up.'_

'_And, any money I make? S'from odd jobs, an' I keep it ta myself. Money I make from the actual Hakurei-requested magic workshops, accessible publicly by mages? It's shit. I give my dad most, slip a couple yen in my bra, but it's like nothing anyway.'_

But, she couldn't tell him any of that. She was his daughter, a western peasant, a mage, and a woman. He owned this house— or something like it— and this family. He was an active and verbal member of the western villager community, and he spent the stipend on services in the village quite frequently; a feeling which he became entitled to after accepting the offer to come here to Japan.

She couldn't debate any of these points, any of those points— or any points. His expectation was that she was less than him, indefinitely owed him her care and services, and should feel the same, because she's supposed to rely on his leadership to find success and wealth.

'_In reality, none a' that happens 'cause he's stupid, and it's easier to just do as I do without gettin' in his damn way. 'Cause if there's anything he's a real pro at, it's bitching and moaning.'_

"What?" He spoke up, since she was just standing there in thought. "We're not arguing about this, if that's what you want."

'_You don't know a flyin' fuck about magic and should just shut up about it.'_

"Ah? Nah." Milla instead gave him an airy wave. "Mmh."

...He watched her saunter off to her room. Exhaling, he returned to his parchment.

_Crea~k._ Swinging her room's door open, she looked around…

The powders, liquids and papers necessary for the teleportation entryway were here; an alternative to the special stone Kiyoko had received from that buddhist nun.

'_Alrightie. Lemme just…'_

Scooping it all up, fixing it into a satchel bag of sorts, she slung the bag around her head and shoulders, so the strap would rest on a shoulder opposite the bag itself.

With all of this, she moved for the staircase in the back of the hallway, outside her room.

'_Wit' that new skill I cooked up a few weeks ago, breakin' out's been a cinch.'_

Climbing the stairs, she arrived at that second level. It was fairly small, featuring her father's room on the right, and a small storage room to the left.

On the far end of this upper hall was a door.

Swinging it open and shutting it quietly, Milla walked out along the roof access up here.

'_He'll be watchin' out the front window, 'cause he hears my steps on the balcony up here. Settin' up a pillow a floor down ain't hard. He got used to that.'_

Instead, she jumped up onto the railing. "Hup…"

Up here, she looked up at the shingled second-story roof of her own house, and the similarly shingled, two-story roof of the house next to hers. That home had no balcony to make the hierarchy of rooftop shingles and rooftop wood flooring confusing to describe.

"_Nn- yuhp!"_ Bounding off the railing of her house, she jumped twice, legs flailing as her leap's height was extended.

_Cla- clap!_ Her limbs clutched the red shingles of this roof.

_woosh._ "Yup!" Since she wasn't strong enough to pull herself up naturally, not without insane effort, a flush of wind came up from beneath herself, forcing her into a handstand.

_thu- thud._ Like this, she was able to awkwardly land onto her knees. Turning around, she continued up the roof.

'_A little clumsy, but my dad'll never fuckin' know.'_

Soon, the magic back home will catalyze a puppet in her bed. Her room would make various random noises during the time she would be awake, so he wouldn't go check on her. If he passed her room, the noises would stop. Since the puppet was always there, when he opened the door, it'd seem like she was pretending to sleep to not deal with him.

Unless he was extremely insistent, that'd all be good enough. _'Not that getting yelled at by him sucks too hard anyway, but if I can avoid it, it'd be good.'_

Milla walked off the roof on the opposite end of her neighbor's house.

"_Nnh!"_ Before she hit the floor, she leapt off the air itself one more time. The wind cushioned her fall, letting her land relatively safely. "Unh."

'_Now— I really gotta fuckin' book it! At least I told Kinky— I'd meet her at one of the various fancy-pants clearings that the public can access, but people just don't go there 'cause they're outta the way.'_

She probably had an hour and thirty minutes left. Even though the castle was so far away, if she gave it her all, she'd probably make it.

'_I hafta find a clever way through. The crowd's gonna be unhelpful at best, and it's a mostly Hakurei sorta venue anyway.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

2 | The Real Vanishing Act!

_Woo~sh!_ Uneven gales billowed down the main road, the many Hakurei garb-clad men and women holding onto their frilly accessories uneasily amidst the breeze.

The main road here was tightly packed; tall buildings standing to the left, and similar buildings to the right, only parted by the gate to the Hakurei courtyard they shielded.

'_They're gonna get suspicious of it, bu~t—'_

"'Scuse me! Pardon me!" As the many people held onto their clothes from the wind, or faltered in minor discomfort, Milla weaved and spun through them.

Eventually, she came to some people too tightly packed together, and there was no easy way around them.

'_Goddamit— move ya fuckin' gossipers—'_

She shoved her broom between the hips of two Hakurei women ahead, and focused. _'Spark!'_

_Zap!_ It jolted them, just slightly, enough to be surprising.

"_Ooo!"_ One of them leapt—

"Ee!" The other threw herself to the left, into a guy's side. "Oo— nnh, sorry!"

"Wh— it's okay…" He looked her over, as she gradually pushed away from him.

Milla had already weaved between the surprised people, jogging ahead.

'_Good— there's less traffic past that fuckin', horizontal line of idiots.'_

She was on the main street, where vendors lined almost every meter, and decorations were hung up everywhere. Banners flew, bearing this particular flower Milla forgot the name of, as well as the red-white colors of the Hakurei.

'_Hakurei really like this one particular flower. And, y'know, sure. It's cute, I guess.'_

Along the gate into the front courtyard, the consistency of Hakurei gathered there was big. They were filling into it with such disorganization, that actually getting in through that way could only be accomplished through waiting.

'_Damn it. There has to be—... some other way in.'_

Milla searched the front, wood walls that shielded the front courtyard. This castle had no european stone walls which would shield it, and it itself was extremely built upward, so it didn't need much girth.

Instead, this front courtyard, while private and typically reserved for those who had a reason to be there, was also open to a select amount of vendors and properties.

'_There's only one real way into the front yard. Or at least, one right way. That's the front gate. But…'_

The properties that shielded the courtyard, tightly woven together to make alley navigation there impossible, were all owned entirely by different families. As such, _how_ those interwoven structures worked were all different, and made intentionally confusing.

'_...Or, ta cut a long story short, the front yard's like a special section a' town shielded by random houses. Only super cool people can get in and out, unless the flood gate's opened by the Hakurei themselves. Or, unless...'_

'_Unless you find a different way, through one of the buildings. Forget about goin' over them— youkai who'd do that just get fucked.'_

Milla moved for the storefronts along the right of the gateway inside.

'_Ah. These places are open? Some people sellin' random shit. How about…'_

_Di- ding. Di- ding, ding- diding- ding!_ One store's front made constant racket, as Hakurei filed into it in a party.

Quietly, Milla filed up behind them, lips pursed. _'Let's sneak in behind 'em…'_

The store was dim and warm inside. Magi-lights filled the shop with a pleasant sensation, and Hakurei women with fancy kimonos were gesturing to a number of nice plates in here.

'_What the fuck is this, the tea plate store?'_

"Ooh…" One of the girls she'd walked in with held her hand to her own face. "These are really pretty…"

"They must be royal designs…"

"Hiroto-kun! This might be our only chance to buy some!"

"You know how Masae loves the tea ceremony…"

'_Got an idea.'_ Milla would have to find some way to stir up some chaos, so she could get through the back rooms.

If every storefront on main street was connected to the front yard of the castle, this would let Milla make an instant entry into the main event's crowd.

Crouching behind the crowd of Hakurei who browsed in, Milla thrust the bell-end of her broom up, and whispered. _"Fission Firework Fizzler…!"_

_fwuush._ Hidden by the violent clattering of the store's front bell, and the idle chit-chat of the Hakurei, a plume of sparkly fire trailed into the air in the midst of the big main room.

_Fwii~sh!_ Then, resting there in the air, it expelled a dizzying, mystifying rain of blue and pink sparks, which spread across the whole ceiling, raining down on the room.

"_Ee- aa~h!"_ A girl yelled, surprised.

"Wh- _look out! _There's a youkai in here—"

"The _dishes— save them!"_

"Aa-"

Keeping low, Milla galloped to go around the front counter. _'If I slide in from behind, no one ought to see through all the colors…'_

Once she was around it, she crouched down, marching at half-speed to slink past the elegantly dressed maidens who sold designer tea plates.

Eventually, Milla neared one of the backmost doors. _'Almost—'_

A woman clutched onto Milla's shoulder the moment she stood. _"You."_

Milla froze.

_Fwish!_ Then, with a flick of her right arm, Milla spun her broom by its midsection.

_fwuf._ It stopped against the girl behind Milla. With its bristles, it met the black-haired Hakurei maiden in the face. "Nn—"

'_Psychic Shock!'_ Milla ran her mana into the broom-

_ZAZAP- ZAP- ZAP!_ Electricity danced amidst the bristles, running through the girl's face. _"Eee- aaaa~!"_

_Bam!_ She rammed her back against the counter's edge as she retreated, hands snapping up to her own face.

Milla darted through the open door. _'Alright—'_

It lead through a thin, dark hall accented by shoji. This was the shop's backrooms, and they weren't quite as presentable as the main storefront.

Eventually, Milla came to a spacious, open common room.

It was wood and paper, accented by rose-tinted light, and warm lanterns of mystic energy. _'Looks like a shrine-esque place. Kinda like what I feel like the inside of the Hakurei Castle's like…'_

There was a tea set on a kotatsu ahead, to her right. Two maidens and a kannushi— or male priest— looked up from it.

'_Oh fuck—'_

_Woosh!_ Milla leapt off her feet, into a forward roll through the air, carried by wind. _"Hya—"_

_WooWooWoosh- ClickClick!_ Needles and talismans roared past her, as she arced ahead.

_Clack!_ Milla slammed her broom's tip against the floor when she landed, her knees nearly buckling on landing—

_poof._ A plume of dust exploded out from her robe with the pull of a string, expanding out into the rosy room.

'_Can't catch me if ya can't see me!'_

Quickly, forcing her legs to push her back up out of crouching, Milla made for the door on the room's other side-

_CLACK._ It shut violently.

'_Oh— oh shit—'_

_WOOSH._ Through the smoke, a palm came for her face.

_Whap!_ It hit her in the nose. "Rrgh—"

_Fwish!_ Dipping down, she weaved her torso to the right—

_Woosh!_ She ducked beneath a man's overhead swing of his arm, palm kept flat, as it was meant for the side of her head.

"Mmrh—" He noticed he didn't hit.

_Zap!_ Milla's broom poked his ribs, a jolt going through his body. "Whu—"

She held the bell-end of her broom up, aimed at his face. _'Should be right there!'_

_Fwuu~sh!_ A gush of water roared out, like the pouring of a bucket. _"Hrgh— ruha—"_ Surprised, he tried to yell against the oncoming clump of water—

'_Kiyoko hits harder than this prick does!'_

_Whunk!_ His palm met her fleshy gut in the midst of this magic—

_CRACK!_ The tip of her broom met under his jaw. _"Ughk—"_

_Bam._ His back met the sliding shoji door—

_WHAM!_ Milla kicked a leg into his ribs, aided by a snap of wind.

_CRACK- Krikrack- thud!_ Ice exploded against his chest, and the door blew open some. _"Auh— huu—"_ The Hakurei kannushi rolled down the misaligned, awkwardly tilted door, onto his stomach on the floor.

"_Hoo!"_ Milla ran up and leapt past him, as the smoke dissipated. As if drawing a trail behind her, the maidens chucked streams of talismans after Milla, all aiming for where she used to be.

'_That was a hoot an' a half!'_

With that, Milla was into a small hall, which lead into the next room. past the ajar door. It was only broken some, hanging onto one rail as it tilted awkwardly inward.

Through this particular door, she found herself in a very comfy, L-shaped backroom. It was fit with snacks strewn about, random furniture and dishes, and baskets of Hakurei outfits, worn ones.

Sprinting up to the end of it, Milla slowly cast the door open.

A storefront met her gaze. Three more women manned this one, and from the open front windows, the front lawn of the Hakurei castle could be seen filling up.

'_...Ah, damn it. If I just run out there, I'm gonna get stopped for being an asshole in no time. No way'm I gonna take out a whole samurai squad. So…'_

She paused.

'_Ah! This's all I need!'_

She reached for the dirty Hakurei laundry nearby.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

...Now with long, black hair of her own, magically disguised, Milla felt at her fraudulent bust made of tissues and a bra a few sizes bigger than she'd normally wear.

The kannushi from the other room ran inside, his glare fierce. His gaze centered on the red-white maiden seated on one of the couches...

Milla gave him a questioning, quiet look. He stared at her for a few moments more.

'_If this don't work—'_

"You—" He inhaled. "You heard that, didn't you? Did you see her? That youkai mage."

"Oo— oh?" Milla blinked. "She— um, she saw me, but she— she went—" Milla pointed. "The— shoji…"

...He paused, mystified. Turning away, he looked at the shoji. "What—... about, the shoji?"

"She opened it." Milla provided. "Like, um, went into it."

...The kannushi mouthed 'what', before going to look over the shoji. "Ho—... how? It doesn't look—..."

He faced her. "Are you—... why are _you_ here, anyway?"

"I—" Milla's mind raced to think of an excuse. "I— I fell over, in the lobby. One of the um, maidens, let me relax back here."

"...Oh." He seemed to accept this. "Sorry for bothering you."

'_Thank fuck all these asswipes wear the same goddamn dresses.'_

"Cute haircut, by the way." He pointed at how Milla did her fake black hair's bangs. "What family are you from?"

"Aoyama." Milla thought of the first name that came to mind.

He jerked his head back, and snorted. "Aoyama…? Interesting. Hmh…" After looking back at the hall, he returned his stare at her. "Would you like to join us? We were having a tea ceremony, in the other room. But— that thief. She got the better of me. I wasn't—..." He seemed to grimace.

'_Can ya just fuckin' buzz off. God, seeing people off as a maiden…'_

"Nn— no, thank you." Milla shook her head.

...He raised his brows, as if concerned. "You'd turn down a tea ceremony? We haven't offended you somehow, have we? I apologize again for my interruption."

'_Holy shit…!'_

"I just— want to relax." Milla wasn't sure what to say. She didn't really know anything about tea ceremonies.

He took pause. Then, he walked closer to her.

"You're blushing." He noted. "Do you feel well?"

'_God, fuckin'...'_

"Uu— um…" Milla smiled awkwardly. "I— I don't know."

"I could see you to one of our family's sleeping chambers." He suggested. "...Or, if you'd like me to stay—"

"Sl— slow down." Milla requested.

"Sorry." He seemed to slouch awkwardly. "Did— I misread you?"

"Yes." Milla capitalized on this. "Can— you please leave?"

"...Aa— alright."

'_Fuckin'... yes! Suck it!'_

With that, he began to wander off. Once he left the room, he slid the sliding door shut behind himself.

The moment he was gone, Milla bolted from her seat like a bat out of hell.

From inside her red-white dress, she drew the satchel bag with all of her materials. _'Heheheh…'_

_Shoof- clack._ Sliding this last shoji door open, she marched out amidst the three vendor maidens who served the store front.

"Peace." With that, Milla beelined to the front door.

"Um…?"

"Is she—...?" None of them knew exactly who Milla was, but considering her Hakurei regalia, they assumed they may have just neglected the presence one of their sisters. Alternatively, something interesting may've happened on the other storefront. Could've been a number of small things, really. It was a very busy day.

Regardless, it wasn't their place to care too much about it. Before Milla was even gone, they went back to gingerly surveying the lineup of dishes they had. Some were still serving customers.

'_Finally…'_

_Ding, ding! _Milla left through the front door here, its bell clattering.

The clearing was huge, the floor completely made of massive square plates of stone. Before Milla, the Hakurei Castle stood.

The castle was on her right as she left the shop. On her left was the ever-growing crowd of maidens and kannushi, as well as samurai. Along the balconies of the storefronts, including the balcony over herself, more maidens, kannushi, guards and officials stood.

'_How much time do I got left? Probably some…'_

Pivoting to the right, Milla moved to look for one of the side yards that Kiyoko spoke of.

Further up the storesides within this isolated plaza, there were indeed stone arches that lead out into subsections of this closed, miniature town.

Milla went right, and through one of the arches.

It looked nice back here. The tall, packed buildings kept this area dark and dim, and it was only a tiny fraction of the size of the grand plaza outside.

There were two fountains out here, amidst grassy stone, and a patch of actual grass between those fountains.

Dim light barely came from within the unmanned storefronts here. _'There's really just… no one back here, huh?'_

Then, she saw her, upon a bench.

Kiyoko sat there, looking pristine and gentle. It seemed like she was relaxing.

"Aa— hey!" Milla called out for her.

...Kiyoko blinked twice, and gave her a little look. "Who—... who're _you?"_

'_Oh, right…'_

_poof._ Milla took her red-white ribbon and black wig off, and shook her brown hair about. "S'me~."

"Oo— oh." Kiyoko perked up. "So that's how you got in, so quickly."

"Wh— whaddaya mean, 'so quickly'? In like, an hour more or so, we're gonna be outta time!" Milla beamed back. "That platform up on the castle wall—" Milla looked to see if she could spot it from here. "S'that where they're makin' ya do the execution?"

"...Well, for one thing, it's not _on_ the castle wall." Kiyoko clarified. "It's going to be in the clearing. And…"

Kiyoko considered what to say next. "My involvement starts the ceremony. I'll execute the youkai for all to see. A series of high-profile executions will follow, and then plans and announcements from my parents."

Her definition of 'high-profile executions' meant 'executions performed by high-profile clan members', not the murder of notable criminals. _'Unless no-name youkai count! An' they don't.'_

Milla snapped her fingers. "Ooh, that's perfect. So, the gears can't even stop even if we slip the youkai away somehow." She slung her satchel bag before herself, and rifled through it.

"Yeah…" Kiyoko's voice didn't express confidence.

Milla didn't quite read that yet. "So— if ya take some papers and powders I've brought, maybe ya can mix 'em in with your charms— or the platform— or _somethin'—"_

"I don't think that's going to work." Kiyoko decided.

"...Eeh?" Milla blinked. "Why not? I— I mean, even if it don't—"

"I don't think _any _plan is going to work." Kiyoko also decided. "My parents aren't like the trash we torment in the village. Smoke and mirrors isn't gonna cut it."

"But—" Milla's mouth slipped ajar. "There has ta be _something._ If we had more time—"

"Even if we had more time." Kiyoko stared along the floor, all of a sudden. "My parents…"

"They ain't fuckin'... _ultra geniuses,_ I'm sure." Milla doubted it. "Ee— even if you hardly get to know 'em, I mean..."

"They would be able to tell I hadn't killed anyone." Kiyoko shook her head. "The way I carry myself. The spiritual essence of what I'd do."

"...The— then—" Milla wound herself up, in part because Kiyoko's retort was weak. _"Fuck 'em!_ Forcin' ya to kill people's just, shitty!"

"Would you rather me be homeless?" Kiyoko countered. "Execute myself? Live as a prostitute, maybe?"

"We— well, no…" Milla wouldn't want her friend hurt. "But—... how could you let yerself—"

"Just, when push comes to shove… I'd rather my own survival."

"But—" Milla couldn't wrap her head around it. "If— if I was you—"

"You aren't me." Kiyoko countered. "You can't make _my_ decisions for me."

Milla paused.

"But, like—" Milla was getting annoyed. "Why? I mean— I know _why,_ but fuckin'— why _go through wit' this—_"

"If society's dictated an innocent die, that is the fault of society. Myself, I'd rather that innocent not be _me._" Kiyoko resolved. "It'd be hypocritical of you to suggest I do otherwise."

Milla glared. _'It's on the tip of my damn tongue…!'_

"Like _fuck!"_ Milla blurted. "When the hell _will_ you speak out against this shitty way of life? That kind of greed's a slippery _damn_ slope."

Kiyoko's eyes flared back at Milla's. "...And who are _you_ to determine the competence of _my_ judgment?"

"I'm just _sayin'."_ Milla frowned. "First, standin' up here's too hard. Makin' a difference _here's_ too hard. Next, you'll be buyin' fuckin'... I don't know _tea plates,_ wit' money that could've been used to help _good people—_ or to _fix_ some of this shit— and—"

"Milla…" Kiyoko sighed. "Look."

She stood. Coming up to Milla, she put an arm on her friend's shoulder. "Like—... look. We… we've always solved our problems, generally, by thinking smarter, and not harder."

"We could think hard when push came ta _shove."_ Milla retorted.

"You can't win 'em all." Kiyoko shook her head. "...I think we've done pretty—... pretty _damn_ good so far, if I do say."

Milla supposed this was true. Yet…

"Just—... when ya participate in _anything_ so shitty, bein' okay with it just… feels fuckin' backwards." Milla was disappointed. "Like—... we could fix this shit _right now_. Stick it to the fucking pricks in your castle. If we couldn't now, we'd get stronger. We— like, we could escape. Train around the land— or something— or—"

"You're not being realistic, Milla." Kiyoko stated the obvious. "Unless we ran off to join the buddhists, or something. I feel the Hakurei would just declare war on them in that event…"

Milla's adrenaline flared.

"Ye— yeah? Well— _fuck_ that! Fuck being realistic! If I had to give up everything—... if I had to give up _everything,_ I'd have just as much as when I started! As long as I got my thoughts, my dreams, everything that's me— nothing else could fuckin' compare! No house, no books, and no shitty respect from people not worth any in the first place!"

...Kiyoko wasn't sure how to put it.

She believed Milla's rebellion against society to be self-centered. Such that, if she wasn't amongst the commoners, she wouldn't be complaining as much about society's factual faults.

Kiyoko also felt, it was easy to form a belief like that selfishly. Milla had nothing to lose, as she herself said. To pull stunts of grand offense and political conflict would hardly set her back any further than where she is now. Other than, perhaps, death or jail if she was caught.

But, to Kiyoko, that act of defiance meant a lot more.

Milla told her to follow her dreams, without regard to the shallowness of other people.

"I think I can lead this clan to success and wisdom." Kiyoko made her ambition known. "I'm not… giving up something only _I_ can do. I'm not giving up my things. I'm not giving up my home, or my family, however stupid and shallow it is."

Milla's glare was fierce. "You fucking _coward."_

Kiyoko snorted. "You fucking _hypocrite."_

'_What…?'_

Kiyoko grinned. "Who was it, who told me to not let others spit on _my_ dreams?"

Standing tall before her friend, Kiyoko looked up at the castle. "...I'm not letting anyone change me in a strange direction. Not my parents. Not what I have to do to survive tonight. Not any loser from the village. Not _you."_

'_But—'_ Milla was angry. _'You—...'_

Her grimace was hard. "Ee— even in the face of what's _right?_ This is _weak,_ Kiyoko. It's _stupid."_

"Strategy isn't so simple." Kiyoko fought a smile. "...Th— that's why _I'm_ in line to the throne, and _you're_ not."

"Oh." Milla staggered back, nodding repeatedly. "Oh, I see how it is, then. You _stupid_ motherfucker."

"He- hehe…" Kiyoko grinned at her reaction. "Loo— look. I don't—... I _really don't_ like this tradition. But— we have to agree, the situation's _complicated—"_

"It doesn't _hafta_ be!" Milla yelled back. "If your parents really love you— if stickin' with this shit was really worth it, you shouldn't _have to_ kill some fuckin' random kid!"

"I don't think they really did to begin with." Kiyoko reasoned.

'_...Okay, fair.'_ Milla wasn't sure hers did either. _'Fuckin'—'_

"Politics and people are—... are, at best, long-winded." Kiyoko declared. "I really don't care for it. But it's something I have to _deal with,_ sometimes. If I wanna keep my way of life, and use my influence to make life better _later,_ and for _other people._"

Milla didn't want to let go. "How do I know you're not just bein' a pussy? People look after themselves. How do I know you're not just some _shitty_ fuckhead like your mom? Like the rest of your hokey-pokey _clan?"_

'_First, she goes ahead and is a yes-man with this shit. Next thing you know, ohp, she's embezzling money and gettin' lost in the circus that is the Hakurei Castle. Fuck me.'_

...Kiyoko came to a decision.

"I'll fight you."

_shii~f._ Cracking her neck, Kiyoko drew her bokken from her back.

Her gaze was sharp. "You want to show me the strength by example. Or maybe— exemplary strength. The strength to guide others, to lead."

Kiyoko held the bokken one-handed, unlike how she traditionally wielded it up until this point. "I'll make you see _mine."_

...Milla smirked.

"Ha~h? You and your shitty disciple sword techniques?" Milla didn't think a lot of them. "Between you an' me, I don't think you're _built_ fer big one-on-one fights."

"Show me, then." Kiyoko beckoned her. "Words are shallow. We've done little about or problems than exchange _words_ about them. Doing is strength, Milla— you _know _this. Shut up and _fight me."_

Milla leaned her head to one side.

'_...Yeah. I receive that.'_

_Whi- whi- whish._ Milla spun her broom overhead. "I'm going to fucking _break_ you."

Kiyoko took a deep breath, and beamed. "Likewise."

'_This cheeky little shit. Her wound-up Hakurei skills, her clumsy but strong one-hit sword swings…'_

'_I'm the strategian of us. I'm the one who's intimidatin' in a close-up, flat-out brawl. My magic'll send her on her ass in seconds flat.'_

_Zip- fwish, fwash!_ Electricity arced along Milla's broom, as she spun it around, changing each hand it was in, encroaching on Kiyoko.

"Hup!" Kiyoko leapt to the left, executing a somersault that distanced herself from Milla.

"_Hehyea~h!"_ That's when Milla flipped forward, practically springing off her shoes with the wind's aid. Mid-flip, she even arced for Kiyoko's form, broom lugged up overhead.

It was like they were both doing somersaults; but Milla's was greater, covering more distance, and with more force. Kiyoko's was a _dodge roll,_ while Milla's was a _rolling strike._

_CLACK!_ Milla slammed her broom down. Now crouching, Kiyoko parried it with her bokken.

_ZA- ZAP- ZAP! _Bolts of yellow electricity arced from the broom's bell-end as it jiggled, falling onto Kiyoko and shocking her. _"Ebe— uuh— nnh— aa—"_

"_Oo~h!?"_ Milla's voice just about squeaked when she yelled. "Hehehe—" She slung her whole broom overhead like a club. She flicked her arm down with messy force, intent on bonking Kiyoko on the head.

"Aa—" Kiyoko found her senses, and brought her bokken back with both arms—

_WHACRACK!_ Milla stroked the broom's width down Kiyoko's head.

"_Anh- nhk-..."_ Kiyoko was planted _right_ onto her knees, a splash of blood from her scalp accenting the sheer, seismic ferocity of Milla's smashing cleave. Milla had used her gravity magic to make the strike many times as brutal.

Milla had tried to knock her out in one hit.

'_That— didn't knock her out…!? What the fuck's her head made of!? That never didn't work!'_

"Fuckin'..." Milla brought her broom back, like a bat.

'_Just like that fuckin'—... baseball sport, or whatever it was.'_

"_Hye~"_ Milla slung her broom out, parting the air before herself so her swing would have maximum power.

_WHAKRACK!_ It met Kiyoko's forehead dead-on.

With a small spritz of blood, Kiyoko was sent rolling back hilariously, doing three or more rolls down the stony path. _"Nn— nn…"_

"How's _that—"_ Milla leered at Kiyoko, when she finally stopped on her side, eyes uneven. "—fer fuckin' _strength!?"_

Kiyoko was on her stomach. Hearing Milla's voice, she grit her teeth, and fought off the ground. Her adrenaline flushed to life, and her eyes began to widen.

Teeth bared, she stood fully, bokken ready.

"He— heal…" Kiyoko pressed a palm into the air.

_Fwoash!_ A pulse of light bloomed from her core, and then her whole body lit up white.

"Aah…" Exhaling in abject relief, she focused her gaze. Her forehead was bloody from where her skin was beaten. "There."

"Aw, I can keep doin' this all fuckin' _day."_ Milla beamed. "No fuckin' _way_ am I lettin' you kick off that damn ceremony."

Kiyoko held her bokken tighter.

"Milla—" She inhaled. "...I—... you know what I told you? Months ago?"

Milla blinked. "Don't try and fuckin' confuse me, y'dumbass."

"About my family arts…" Kiyoko stepped back, as Milla stepped closer. "The ones I could never use, in any of our expeditions. Even though I've—... dipped in them, a lot. I've never truly abused them, more than what any clansman or maiden could do…"

"Oh, as if all that hokey shit would matter." Milla half-smiled, as she marched closer. "Y'said words were weak, right? Shut the fuck up."

Kiyoko snorted.

'_I've been dealing with shitty Hakurei techniques all my life. Needles, sealing talismans, stupid bouncy orbs— whatever it is, it doesn't many anything to—'_

Kiyoko was gone.

Milla blinked—

_WHAM!_ From behind, the bokken met Milla's gut, a stroke meeting her right side directly. _"Uhf—"_

Kiyoko was no longer behind her; now she was in front, thrusting her bokken.

_THUNK!_ The tip of the bokken met the underside of Milla's chin. _"Rhgh!"_

Milla recognized this. '_No you fuckin'—'_

"_Here we go!"_ Kiyoko yelled. _"Fantasy Aura!"_

_CRACK._ Milla was stabbed by the bokken, or at least, it felt like it. From her left, the tip poked into her gut, and a piercing pain bloomed through her entire body.

Looking ahead still, Milla saw it. Kiyoko appeared, moving at an absolutely impossible speed, bokken held tight with both arms, her form blurring into Milla's.

_CRAA~CK!_ She jabbed Milla in the gut so hard, Milla flew off her boots, and went flying backward in the air. A brilliant arc of saliva and blood arced out from her mouth.

As she ascended—

_CRAA~CK!_ Kiyoko was in the air next to her, and thrust her bokken tip-first into Milla's left gut again.

_WHABAM! _This sent Milla bouncing off the upper wall of a nearby, unmanned store front.

_CRAA~CK!_ Appearing behind Milla, Kiyoko thrust her bokken's tip straight into her spine, sending Milla roaring forward. _"Huuhaa—"_

'_So fuckin' fast—'_ Her whole body hurt, and although she was being amazingly juggled in the air, Milla refused to retire so quickly.

_WOOSH!_ She jumped again in the air with the wind's aid, doing a forward roll mid-air to brush aside the next blow of Kiyoko's thrust rush, as Kiyoko herself came from ahead again.

'_Hehahaha! Fuckin' missed, bitch—'_ Milla had rolled _over_ Kiyoko.

_Thud._ Mid-air, Milla landed flat on her ass, atop a barrier made right underneath herself. _'Wha— what the fuck—'_ Kiyoko had made it.

Kiyoko was directly overhead. _"Behold…"_

Milla looked up, as Kiyoko came straight down.

_SMAAAA~SH!_ Her bokken blew right into Milla's ribs. The prismatic, white barrier made beneath Milla broke.

"_BLAST!"_ Kiyoko's voice roared out.

_VHIR._ A magic circle was made underneath, along the ground where Milla would fall onto.

_FWOWAA~SH!_ From the magical circle, a beam of pure white enveloped Milla.

This was Kiyoko's 'Psychic Judgement', or as her family called the technique, just 'Judgement'. A pillar of pure, diamond-like holy magic that reacted negatively to anything remotely magical.

Milla's mind went blank from pain, as the demolishing pillar sent her soaring way, way up in the air.

_WHA- CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK!_ As it flickered out, Kiyoko's bokken ran three X-shaped impacts across Milla's body. Her broom was abandoned, as she rolled around mid-air, limbs flailing.

Kiyoko ran a tongue across her own dry lips.

"_None of this can be changed."_

_SMAAAA~SH!_ From above, she brought her bokken straight down on Milla's ribs again.

They'd ascended so high, that they were over the rooftops. Milla was falling three-four stories straight down, body spiraling after the impact of Kiyoko's bokken.

Kiyoko didn't want her friend to die. So, she softened the fall.

_SMAAAA~SH!_ Halfway down, she cleaved her glowing-white bokken into Milla's side and back. The direct horizontal blow sent Milla rocketing.

_BOOM!_ Milla met the second of the stone arches that lead back to the front yard.

Limply, as light as a doll, Milla numbly felt air build around herself, as she rolled to the floor as a tatter.

'_Fuck…'_ She wasn't really strong enough, after all. _'Fuck you…'_

_pap._ Kiyoko caught her simply. She wasn't so cruel as to follow up on her a second time.

"I'm only so awkward… because I couldn't demonstrate _true_ competence with my power." Kiyoko revealed. "And, you're right. You _are_ truly strong, Milla. For a human. But, you hold no candle to my training. To the opponents I will one day face."

_Fwoash. Fwoash._ Two pulses of healing energy ran up Milla's body.

It was like she'd died and came back. "Haa—" It was like she emerged from being underweter. "Kauf— kaugh— cauh…!" She hacked up blood that was caught in her throat. "Fhuck—..."

_thump._ She sat Milla down on the bench she was seated at earlier.

"I don't have anymore time to spare." Kiyoko decided. "I'm sorry, Milla. I—... after this, I still want to be your friend. I don't know when I'll be able to see you again… but, please. Remember me. I'll—... I'll remember you. Hold onto that thought… and keep your light burning strong."

'_Fuck. No…'_ Milla knew she fucked up.

"Ki— Kiyoko—..." She called out for her friend, but Kiyoko was already booking it out of the side yard as fast as possible.

Milla tried to get off the bench to run after her— but Kiyoko knew not to heal her up _that_ much.

"_Kiyoko!"_ Milla yelled. "Get—... get fucking—... back here…"

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Milla hadn't even thought to disguise. It didn't matter; there were some westerners in the crowd, anyway, so she was obviously allowed to be here.

She tuned out the chit-chat around herself. It all felt so distant.

'_Fuck…'_ She held onto her side, and stared up. _'This… this really sucks…'_

Then, after a short delay, the crowd grew silent.

Before the castle itself, a wood platform level only a few meters above the crowd was set up. Ornate shoji framed the back of it, framing three sliding doors.

'_Nice fuckin' dinky oriental platform. Pretty sure this was put up in the like, thirty minutes I was spaced out on that bench.'_

Before these doors, a white mat was already laid out. Milla gave it a flat stare. _'There's two fancy chairs to the side, too. What's the mat for…?'_

_Shoof- click, click, click._ The three doors there all slid open at once, once the crowd was respectful.

Kiyoko and her parents all appeared at once, coming from within a realm of prismatic light revealed behind each sliding door. Once they were all out, the doors slid shut.

On the left was her father. A tall man, with slicked-back black hair, and an imposing, silver-looking suit of samurai-styled armor.

On the right was her mother. The current head shrine maiden of the Hakurei clan; a brilliant woman with immense height, a beautiful figure, perfect black hair, and an impeccably soft smile.

The shrine maiden of all shrine maidens was like a princess. The samurai of all samurai, technically the greatest kannushi, stood imposing alongside his family.

Despite their daughter being of similar height to them, she seemed almost impossibly small by comparison. Her presence was nowhere near as overwhelming as her parents.

Kiyoko seemed to have the blood cleaned off her face and body for this event.

Milla swallowed. _'Fucking… damn it.'_ She'd have to watch a youkai die tonight.

She may've not particularly cared or known that youkai in particular, but she was going to have to watch a death she was indirectly responsible for.

The Hakurei around the plaza beholding the event grew more silent. The very leaders of the clan deserved and demanded respect, and they were no one to refuse.

Milla was able to decipher the voices of the audience around herself, as they died out.

"I— I think they're going to execute someone…"

"Really?"

"There's only two chairs…"

"Look at that mat. It's not there to be pretty."

...Then, true crowd silence. As silent as a crowd could really get, in spite of all the white noise idle bodies produce.

Minutes after silence set in, the greatest shrine maiden glided forward, to greet her people. "Good evening. I hope you're all doing well." Her voice was projected across the clearing, likely loud enough to be heard over most of the village.

"We have been making excellent progress, in our establishment of this land. The humans have never been more protected than they are now, and never has such resistance been brought from this place to the youkai which torment it.

"Every evening, a citizen of the village we own together may now rest easy, safe from the fears of inhuman menace, or the ominous curses of the monsters."

'_We. Yeah, we. You mean you own it. Not that I know what life was like before you supposedly rolled in here.'_

"It is only with the wisdom the Hakurei clan holds, that this land is beginning to see the light of peace shine down, from the sky, and beyond clouds."

She slid back. "For this, I thank all who continue to hold onto their lives."

Silently, one of the chairs at the wood stage's side slid up. She quietly moved to slowly sit in it, making no wasted motions.

'_Mhm. 'Cept, how about the fuckin' girls who get sold by the Hakurei as pets, servants, and fucktoys? Is that just? Just—... is that just okay?'_

It was a problem beneath the royalty to look at.

After the shrine maiden was silent, the samurai man lurched forward, before retaining his perfect posture.

"We have seen no losses of ground." His voice was loud, and commanding. "Between our most courageous of foes, the oni lack the tact to press their advantages, or to hold their middles. The tengu, the true tactical threat, have been driven and even felled to the new tools we have offered the village. Warriors are being rewarded handsomely for their services.

"I implore everyone, even humans of no divine right, to assist in this fight. I can guarantee you a spot that fits your skillset, and in this most profitable endeavor, you will find fortune and worth."

'_Dunno about that. It's typically the non-Hakurei who don't come back. But, whatever you say, buster.'_

"To demonstrate our intent, and the attitude we exercise towards the youkai who torment humanity…"

He gestured ahead.

_vhir._ Sigils lit up along the front face of the castle, only briefly. The Hakurei around Milla leaned back, in variant caution and awe of the neon yin-yang spectacle of colors.

"We will demonstrate the merits of our daughter's will and studies." The kannushi-samurai announced.

Along the left side of the stage, a sliding door built into one of the building fronts there slid open.

"The heir to the Hakurei bloodline will take the first step on her path to adulthood, maidenhood, and divinity.

"A symbol against all that is evil, and her first step on the path of greatness. Of heroism, true courage, and discipline."

_Fwish._ He waved his hand into the air, and before Kiyoko, a katana of seemingly white light was formed. Moments later, the light faded, revealing it to be a plain steel blade.

"In her upbringing, she has been taught to exterminate youkai." He seemed to narrate this whole presentation of sorts. "To wield a weapon, to _be_ a weapon, for humanity."

Kiyoko claimed the blade, and it grew less blurry, gaining definition and sharpness. It wasn't just the blade; it was sheathed too.

"Regardless of shape, or form. Might, or meek. A youkai is a youkai; it is that simple!"

That's when the youkai appeared, from the little awkward door adjacent to the stage proper.

A Kejourou; a being that outwardly seemed almost human. She had a pink-yellow kimono, her wrists bound by chains.

Distinctly, she had a massive length of black hair. So massive that it pooled behind herself as she walked, leaving a two-meter long trail behind herself.

Metal chains had bound much of the massive, face-concealing curtain of hair to the sides of her face. The entire length of matted, black hair behind herself was well-bound by different rings of chains, to keep it all contained.

The youkai trudged with a distinct slowness, the weight of all these chains making movement clumsy and hard for her. She— or 'it', depending on one's preference— eventually turned onto the stairs that lead onto the stage, which were only present on the left, for specifically her.

The Kejourou's eyes were wide, so wide that Kiyoko could practically feel her own heart pounding just looking at it. The youkai's body shook.

Kiyoko's father moved along Kiyoko's back, and came to the second extremely ornate chair, positioned next to his wife.

"Tonight!" He bellowed, before he would sit down. "Kiyoko Hakurei is in the image of the Hakurei God, like her mother, and like me! She walks the path to divinity!"

Coming up to the white mat, eyes wide as she beheld Kiyoko's sheath at her waist, the youkai girl surveyed where she would sit.

As Kiyoko stood there, awkwardly fixing the sheath to her waist, the youkai sat down on her knees on the mat. She faced the audience, eyes teary, cheat heaving.

Kiyoko knew when her own hesitation could be seen. Her intuition told her so; that everyone else's intuition would read even a moment's excess hesitation. Especially her parents, who decided everything.

The audience remained deathly quiet, in anticipation. Milla expected murmurs, or an uproarious or obnoxious cheer.

Milla expected a fireworks-like display, a middle-finger to youkai and to decency. A cinematic spectacle of spitting on something's life. Now that she reflected on this expectation, it felt downright cartoony.

Rather, the Hakurei around her remained silent in respectful reverence.

Steel katana held by white knuckle, Kiyoko turned to properly behold the youkai bound there before herself.

_Cli- clink, clink._ Its meters-long length of hair, even while bound, shifted on its own, without any additional help from her head, betraying the woman's youkai disposition. It was like the hair was a limb of its own.

"I—" The youkai swallowed. "Pl— please… I— I didn't—..."

...Kiyoko frowned. "Though you must die here, I will—" She swallowed. She wasn't sure if this would be smiled upon or frowned upon. "—listen to your story. To appease my curiosity." That should be a good excuse.

Her father raised a brow.

The youkai was breathing hard, hyperventilating. "...I—... I just— I just wanted to—... meet the humans."

Milla looked up, at the bright platform on display for all of the Hakurei.

"I was told— hu— humanity could be co— compassionate. The tengu, the oni— they said the same thing. That humans— were a—... a hard crowd. But, my— my beauty—... I thought they would appreciate my beauty."

As the youkai spoke, distracted by her own explanation and sobbing, Kiyoko drew the katana as quietly as possible, as she was taught for this ceremony.

Kiyoko's face was hard. Everyone saw the glimmer of the live steel, as she positioned it. She had only practiced this motion some, and she hardly dared to breathe as she lined the blade up in the air beside herself.

'_Maybe— she has some idea…'_ Milla bit her lower lip. _'Come on… like— a— teleporting decoy, or— or a—'_

Then, it was time for resolve. Kiyoko's voice came out firm. "You thought wrong."

Kiyoko swung her katana down. The way she'd tilted her body, she was able to perfectly, subtly arc it down into the youkai's neck. She let gravity drop the blade, but the moment it was low enough, she refined the motion and added precision by suddenly putting her wrist into it.

It tore through the youkai's living, black hair. Despite how messy it was, there was a talisman back there for Kiyoko to aim at, so that the cut would land in the neck.

The slight spectacle of the youkai's hair dropping registered in Milla's mind. The youkai was disgraced, its key feature cut from it, marking that it was ruined.

When Kiyoko's katana lodged halfway into the back of the youkai's neck, its eyes snapped to look up at the vague air over the audience. "Aa—..."

It was a vague, blistering pain, which snuck up on it— but then, it was gone, eyes fluttering.

She was dead.

'_Damn—...'_ Milla couldn't wrap her head around it. _'Damn it…'_

A second later, and everyone could tell. The youkai was dead. Blood ran down its neck, and its vacant eyes gently drifted shut.

Milla's failure was on display for the whole village to see, a life lost in the name of Hakurei rule. Somehow, the polite neatness of it all was just more insulting. Not that there was a way to make it any less horrible, she figured.

The youkai, its characteristic hair rended from its body, and its body now lifeless as blood ran down its neck, and along Kiyoko's blade.

Its story was over. Utterly defaced and humiliated, it died to uncaring humans who didn't understand it, who would then go on to chuckle and laugh about its demise in closed quarters. They'd pride Kiyoko for how she defaced this enemy of theirs, and the killing potential she wielded, and little else.

Milla hung her head. A life better than this really was just a fantasy. This is how society worked. This is how it was meant to be.

Kiyoko mentally prided herself for accomplishing the skillful cut without slipping up. She expected to have to gore it, to have to put it through terrible misery, but this was… if nothing else, neutral.

Retaining silence, Kiyoko used a practiced motion to flick the blood from her katana. After sheathing, she kneeled behind the slumping youkai, not exactly in respect, but in an expression of elegance. Perhaps some would interpret it as respect for the first life she'd take; as a Hakurei leader, she'd be expected to take many more.

Milla wasn't exactly sad. She didn't feel like crying, to be certain.

But, she was angry. Disgusted, ashamed. Denying.

She turned away from the event. _'Fuck this. Fuck Kiyoko. Fuck the Hakurei. Fuck you.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Not one of her best days, to be certain.

Reality was bitter. _'The way that chick's eyes just—... went.'_ Milla had experience in a lot of things. Watching someone die, while not as extreme as people made it out to be, disturbed her on an ideological level. Particularly, what it meant.

How humiliating and shameful it was for the youkai. _'Maybe if I knew it actually did something bad, I wouldn't give a shit. But I know how this village works, I know how these scumbags work. There's a good chance that wasn't someone awful. Regardless, they got fucked, just like I could get fucked, or Kiyoko could get fucked, or anyone could get fucked._

'_That showing could be a spit on the life of anyone. A life of experiences, loves, dreams, thoughts— all wasted in an instant.'_

'_Pieces of a person that I can bet my ass that people rarely think about. They don't think about it for the ladies they make into whores, or the western men who get indentured or, in some uncommon cases, made inta man-whores.'_

'_They only care about their basic personality, an' how nice they look. Not their life situation, not what they really want, and definitely not their freedom.'_

No one cared about Milla's freedom, she was certain. The only one who cared about that was herself.

'_Everyone went out of their way to watch someone have their life and experiences pissed on. It's completely fucking ass-backwards.'_

The day she was on the chopping block, no one would care what she was interested in, or the cool things she did. Not just things she alone would judge as cool: things others would find neat, or funny. She'd just be a worthless, shallow criminal, and would die like one. No one would give it a second thought. They'd have no reason _to_ know, either.

With only the worst parts of her to go off of, the public's opinions of her would be obvious.

'_And you know what? Y'can say I shouldn't care. They'd all just be people who meant nothin' to my shit. But… look at it this way.'_

'_That'd be my one chance to talk to everyone at once. An' the only thing they hear is some stupid, made-up, misconstrued bullshit, that their own stupid-ass brains would then use to process a one-off, shallow opinion about me. One where I'm just simply another generic bad dude who deserves to rot in hell for just, fuckin', living.'_

She bared her teeth at the floor. _'You know who fuckin' deserves to die? These empty-headed Hakurei pricks who think they run fuckin' nature itself. Gods this, youkai that, youkai magic this… they'd call me shallow, but they—...'_

She was walking back to her house, alone amidst the darkness and starlight.

The event wasn't quite over; other high-name families would be showcasing their standout children, holding similar rituals, but the real meat of it was over. Everyone was there to see the Hakurei heir set the trend. No one truly cared about all the no-name aristocrats who followed.

'_Set a trend she did.'_

'_I'll find a way ta get back at the Hakurei for this. Kiyoko better be on fuckin'... board.'_

She needed a way to level with Kiyoko again, too. _'That fucker held out on me. Here I thought she was clumsy with a bokken— no, she's a champ! She can control those fuckin'... barrier things no problem, too! That's—... it's really no wonder we had no problem with samurai. She could rip holes in whole legions of 'em with that kind of bullshit.'_

She shook her head. The headache she had was getting to her.

'_Oughta just go to bed. I can be pissed and sad in the morning, too. I hate this fucking village. I hate life.'_

Soon, she came to the front door of her house.

'_Last thing I need is baron-von-prickenstine to yell his lungs out about how his fuckin' brain's sliding out of his ears. Let's see~...'_

She held her hand before the front door, intent on magically unlocking it—

It was already unlocked. _'...The fucker forget to lock it? Wow. That's a new level of retarded, even for him. Usually wouldn't be stupid about something that'd outright cost him security or staright-up money. Like, you know, stopping thieves from taking yer shit.'_

_Crea~k._ The door made an unhealthy noise as she swung it open, but the house inside was already lit up. _'Oh— fuck, is he still—... up?'_

She slinked into the main room.

Her dad was there in his chair. Yellow-black seals lined his face, and chest. It was like he was held in stasis.

Seated in a different chair next to him was a person in all maroon. After he turned to Milla, she deduced that he was, in fact, a he.

She wasn't sure if that was Hakurei apparel or what; the maroon outfit had hardly any distinguishable features to it. It was strictly practical, hiding all of his features. Gloves hid his hands, and— _'Dude's not even wearing shoes. The socks are dark red too! What…'_

There was one exception. He had nothing to hide his face, and he plainly scanned Milla as she stood in vague alarm before him.

_Clack._ The door closed behind Milla. She snapped to look at it, before centering her gaze on the man.

"Camilla De Luca." The man spoke her full name.

'_Can hardly tell— is he chinese, or…? Nnh. He's probably from here, stupid question.'_

"...The fu— what're you doing in my house?" She figured she might as well be respectful for now. He _did_ pacify her dad for her, after all.

"Some of us observed your skirmish with the heir." He revealed. "We've noticed your talents. Your ingenuity around the village. The misadventures of you and the heir, vandalizing storefronts as youthful pranks."

'_Wh—'_ Milla's mouth went ajar. _'No way… she— she had to have sold me out. That bitch… it's always the sidekick...'_

"Did—" Milla chose her words carefully. "How do _you_ know? What's this all—"

"We've been watching." He clarified. "...If you've been wondering, the Hakurei council… they don't know about any of this. The heir doesn't know what we know, either."

'_...Then— she didn't snitch!? What…! Then— how the fuck...'_

"That's not to say we don't operate under them." The man clarified. "We're part of the magical compound to the north. As you probably know, the western peasants were brought over for a reason. This reason… it was to help with the magic development of the clan as a whole."

He flicked two fingers up briefly in gesture. "You might feel like that was kind of a joke. It's actually happening, but we—... as our project expands, you see, we need two things. One, we only certain amounts of help. Two, we're constantly evaluating who is capable of helping us. You have been recently determined both capable and of age."

She looked away from him. From her room, down the central hallway ahead, another person poked their head out. They wore a grey mask over their maroon cloth, absolutely none of their skin exposed.

Their grey, angular mask exposed white pinpricks through black holes, which eternally leered. _'What— the fuck was that doing in my room…!?'_

The chinese man on the chair next to her father looked back at the masked man. "Ah, I found her. She's docile."

"Oh, good, good…" This masked thing was apparently a woman. Her voice threw Milla off-guard...

'_Um. So…'_

Milla had her brows furrowed. "So… how _exactly_ does this pertain ta me?"

"Well." The man before her relaxed in his seat. "We _do_ expect some things from you. If you decline, we have multiple methods of making you forget about this evening. If you accept, you could either live here at home, or at the compound, but you must travel to it discreetly. You will be rewarded well for your help. We also have snacks and games."

'_The fuck's with that last part. I mean…'_

"Also." He leaned his head back. "You seek to rival the Hakurei heir in terms of power?"

Milla paused.

"That kind of ambition will be _greatly_ rewarded." He claimed. "Much of the help we've gotten… it's tricky. Some mages are uncomfortable with the community, and the living conditions, even if they're somewhat luxurious. Some have specific tastes in magic, or no drive for power. We need people driven for power."

'_...I mean, shit, that's me, basically.'_

"Additionally... if you decline, chances are, the proper Hakurei will catch on to you eventually." He figured. "They're similar in skill to us, in recognizing these things. You're lucky we found you first. At that point, you'd likely become our prisoner, instead of simply executed. You're not youkai or a petty criminal, after all."

'_...Hmm. Fuck. Guess he has a point. And, if it means I get outta this shitsack of a house, this might even be a good thing. Won't have to put up with these dying skinsacks anymore.'_

'_These bozos aren't quite the royal family's bullshit, either. This guy makes it sound… pragmatic. Sensibly so, in this moment.'_

Milla considered it. "I mean, I'll pro'lly _accept,_ at this point. ...Do I get one of those creepy costumes?"

...He nodded. "Our uniform? ...Well, yes."

'_Bitchin'.'_

"Guess it couldn't hurt." Milla had really nothing else to lose, at this point. "You guys better be at least half as competent as me at this shit. I'm tired a' morons."

'_These guys seem like they know their shit when it comes to stealth, too. Pragmatism's kinda my style, so that only makes these guys seem even more legit. Not as campy or pretentious as the religious fuckos.'_

The outfit-clad man nodded his head. "I hope you find it to your liking. We'll go there now. It's not far; it's just out of sight. You can sleep when you get there. We have many spare rooms open. You can come back for anything you want, especially with how accessible this house is."

'_...Yeah, really not seeing any downsides here. Besides this guy soundin' like a fuckin'... I don't know. It's a level of formality that I can't place...'_

"'Aight." Still, Milla agreed.

She still had a pit in her stomach. _'...If this shit's legit at all, then just you see, Kiyoko. This bitch ain't outta the game just yet.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Unlike what Milla had expected, the magical compound to the north was literally just north of her house.

Her and the Hakurei ninjas— a whole squad of _five_ that had secured her house, apparently— proceeded deep into the deciduous-and-pine woods.

Still, they'd only taken a straight walk right over there. This land, revered by the Hakurei as the training grounds for their novices and blooming exterminators, actually held another purpose.

It kept the villagers from going past the trodden, target dummy and Hakurei implement-clad outskirts. Because of how the Hakurei themselves treated these woods, it didn't seem like anything of worth was past the outskirts, other than more youkai and trees.

If people actually pressed into the woods north of the 'outskirts', an area which most people considered 'youkai country', they'd find the facility here.

'_Fuckin' clever. I thought we were walkin' off into no-man's land myself, but…'_

Before Milla, a huge, pyramid-like structure stood.

'_Guess they weren't takin' me out into the woods to off me after all.'_ Milla was ready to bust a move or two, even.

Though it was a strange, pyramid-esque shape, it wasn't quite so simply that. It was like a fort, built wide and kept beneath the surface of the trees above. Only the very grey tip of the stone compound could be perhaps seen through the trees, but its earthy colors kept it obscure until it was in a traveler's face.

Along the slopes, rigid walkways created level surfaces, defining two floors. They were similar to castle walls, except tiered along the ramps of the pyramid-esque shape.

'_What the fuck is this. It looks… old as hell.'_

On further examination, only some of the stone was ancient. Much of it— likely what needed to be tampered with so people could move in and use the place— was new, clean stone.

"Here we are." The maskless ninja gestured to the compound. "The Hakurei Monument of Magic and Energy Worship."

"...Otherwise known as, 'the magic and alchemy facility'." The girl ninja's voice came from the darkness around Milla.

"Othawise known as, 'that supa' damn secret place all the smart mages went'!"

The last voice was a male's, and it was dry. "Or, as everyone _actually_ calls it, 'the magic compound'."

'_Glad these assholes are comfy.'_ Milla may have preferred it when she thought they were inhuman, perfect masters of stealth.

_Shuu~f._ The stone door at the 'front' of the facility slid up, into the stone work, as the six neared it.

They waited for Milla. Noticing this, Milla snorted, before awkwardly proceeding…

The inside was hazy. Despite being lit, a dim blue fog hid the light along the inner hallways. The main lobby had this blue, horizon-like hue to it, despite the teal and white 'lanterns' positioned around the central island.

This central island amidst the stone floor held trees and fauna, and grass. It all emitted blue, ethereal particles, which were swept up into the air, and held along the ceiling above.

Milla inspected a lantern. It was like a wood cylinder on a stick, but the edges crackled with electricity-like energy, colored strangely.

'_What—... the fuck is all of this.'_

"Let me just talk to the officials." The unmasked, chinese ninja waved the rest of them off. "You guys can get her acquainted with the place."

Promptly, the others began slipping their identical masks off. They also undid the cloth underneath that helped hide their faces.

The woman freed a length of long, straight, hip-length black hair from her outfit. "Mmh. Finally…"

One of the guys took a breath of air. He was a western man with ginger hair, and a scar across his forehead. "Ha~h. Ah, shit… _air."_

'_The fuck'd he do, hit himself in the face wit' a saw?'_

The black-haired woman gave him a plain stare. "...He's Peter. I'm Katsumi."

'_How surreal.'_ Even though she'd grown up in this kind of environment, hearing Japanese and English names together still felt vaguely off.

"Peter." Milla gave him a bland look of her own. "You hit yerself in the face wit' a saw? When you were younger?"

After properly considering her question, Peter furrowed his brows and froze, before giving her a skeptical look. "How'd _you_ know?"

'_...Nice.'_

"This lass really _is_ a magician!" He grinned at Katsumi. "Nehehehe!"

Katsumi turned, and began to walk away.

"Aw, c'mon, Kat…" Peter waved for her. "Wh— where're you _going?"_

"Sleep." She was prompt. "It's late."

'_She ain't wrong.'_

One of the remaining ninja withdrew his facial cloth and mask, revealing blue hair. "Mmh…" Scrunching his face, he drew a pair of glasses from his outfit, and put them on. "There."

Milla's gaze was flat. _"Blue_ hair, dude? Really, ze..."

"It was a _magic accident."_ He insisted. "I'd just _dye_ it back, or whatever you do, but I'm wearing that stuffy damn _mask_ half the time anyway— so it's not like it _actually matters."_

'_Oh, no. He's totally wantin' to defend it, but even he knows it's hokey.'_

"...I take it I wasn't brought here ta get pillaged, then." Milla confirmed. "Here I thought it was all just a fancy cover story to get my ass out somewhere quiet."

The blue-haired guy snorted. "How morbid. Can't even say I blame you."

"...We ain't _that_ scary, are we?" Peter looked worried…

Gaze still flat, the blue-haired guy retorted. "We're _ninjas,_ Peter. Also— consider her situation. She _attacked_ the Hakurei heir, went home, and a _bunch of men in dark outfits_ and masks were waiting for her. I don't know who _wouldn't_ think they were about to be _quickly executed."_

After looking blank for a moment, Peter nodded. "Kinda got a point there, I guess. I mean— it didn't _look_ like the heir gave a toss either way…"

"She really doesn't _have to_." The blue-haired guy continued. "The Hakurei turn western and native villagers into whores and labor for _far less."_

Milla blinked her eyes. _'...Despite all this, my lids're gettin' heavy. Must be gettin' damn late, 'cause I'm runnin' on empty.'_

"I was told I was gettin' a room." Milla wasn't in a hurry to stick around and chat. "Where's that?"

...Peter and blue-haired man looked between one another. "How the _fuck_ should we know." Blue-haired man expressed his inability to help.

She grinned, and snorted. "Wow, thanks."

'_There was one other dude, wasn't there? Five total. Blue-hair, Peter, Katty, chinese dude, and…'_

"Where the hell'd the last of you get off to?" Milla wondered. "I _know_ there was a fifth of ya."

"Oh, right. Him." Blue-haired man stared vaguely into the distance. "He's shy."

'_...Shy.'_ Milla supposed that'd fit. _'I'd ask what the fuck the pitch-crimson outfits are for, but honestly, I'm just… too tired to care.'_

She went to explore solo. _'Since these assholes aren't worth anything, I'll familiarize myself with shit on my own.'_

Past the island of magical fauna, Milla beheld various hallway entrances. Some of them were sealed by stone doors, each with a unique sigil before it.

'_...Um? There any way upstairs?'_

She turned back. The blue-haired man and Peter drifted into the air, onto the upper catwalks which lined the room's perimeter.

'_What the fuck. They— what.'_ Milla was surprised. _'They like—... just flew up there! Fuckin' levitated! Or, jumped really good. Either way, shit was definitely a spell.'_

There was just one door open on the ground level. For now, Milla decided to go investigate what was in there…

'_The fuck's in here, now.'_ It was a strange room.

There were counters and hanging cabinets in the back, but otherwise, the stone room was empty, and went nowhere. Light only came from the main room behind herself.

'_These aren't real cabinets, either. They got panes of wood as if they open on the front, but…'_ Coming up to them, Milla noticed not only the lack of knobs to open them with, but also that the doors were actually just wood panes, and not doors.

She searched the ceiling. There was a round hole there. _'Why. Uuh… it's not even near the counters.'_

'_Who the fuck was this place made for. I—'_

"Oh. There you are." She heard the yet-to-be-named chinese man, who stepped in from the room's open door. "You're cleared to be welcome here. So… welcome."

"Welcome, huh." Milla stared up at the round hole in the ceiling. "So… what gives? With the funky architecture?"

The chinese man smiled. "Oo~h. You don't know _Aerial Ascent_ yet, do you?"

"...That's the _big jump_ floaty shit, isn't it." Milla supposed.

"Yes, quite." If he didn't care for her crudeness, he didn't show it in the slightest. "It's a special kind of magic we've observed as a common trait amongst many types of youkai. While it's rarely exhibited in the open world, youkai that range from plants, insects, animals and concepts are able to exercise this skill. By the simple act of wanting, they defy gravity and ascend to their destination."

"Yeah, wanting, sure." Milla didn't buy that particular cause. "So, what do you do? Just, push your body upwards?"

He snorted. "...In short, yes. But, it is achieved by wanting, in combination with magic. Those unattuned to their magical instincts may wish to ascend, but still will not. For, it takes at least rudimentary understanding of one's own magical body and aura to make it act."

Milla considered that. _'If he says it's so easy, it won't be a problem ta show me, I'm sure.'_

"How d'ya do it, then?" She posed her challenge.

"Do you know of telekinesis?" He questioned. "Or, using your mana to push objects?"

Milla nodded. "Well, yeah. Hardly find a good use for it other than convenience, but yeah." It took a surprising amount of focus, and unless she was chilling out in her room or doing tricks with her broom, actual applications for it that wouldn't get her massacred by Hakurei or other villagers were limited.

"Very good." He nodded. "If you've ever tried to push another body, you'd know how hard it was."

...There _was_ that time she tried to push her dad off the balcony. She also tried to shove Kiyoko as a cute gesture a few times, but couldn't ever do more than grip some of her clothing, to little effect. "Yeah. Yeah I do."

"You may be surprised, but displacing yourself with a similar technique is both easier to perform, and fully possible. You see, since it is _your own_ mana, and it reacts to your will, if you use your magic often, you will be able to ascend through will. Provided, you may need to concentrate on _moving_ your mana as a whole, first. It's similar to walking."

'_...Holy fuck. I could've thought of that. Now I'm ashamed I didn't!'_

He reinforced his smile. "Do not be ashamed if you don't succeed on your first—"

Milla hovered into the air.

'_Oh, god, this feels weird. It's—... not like swimming. Quite. Nor is it quite like walking. But, it's so similar…!'_

Erratically, she bobbed around, past the chinese man, and through the hole in the ceiling.

The shaft above was cylindrical, continuing for a few meters of stone. Then, Milla raised herself out of it.

Up here, the hole's exit didn't lead to a particular room. It lead out onto that upper catwalk the men floated onto, and the catwalk actually lead into a whole common room up here on the second floor.

There were indeed couches, tables, and other common furniture left strewn about up here. _'Looks like there's some toys and other crap up here, too. What a… weird room.'_

Light came from blue candles hung around the walls, and placed upon the tables. The particularly helpful ones were immensely bright and white. The dim blue aesthetic ones weren't particularly useful by comparison.

Also, people. _'Why're so many people still awake…!?'_

Uneasily, Milla landed on her shoes. Some of the mages in here, some in Hakurei garb, others in more traditional western clothing, looked at her briefly.

But, her arrival was no spectacle or new event to anyone here, and they all returned to their activities.

"Al~right!" A young girl's voice piped up. "I'm gonna king ya!"

Some brown-haired guy replied promptly. "It's called 'checkmate'...!"

Another guy on an adjacent chair spoke up. "We oughta invent our own board game."

Next to the young girl, on a couch, was an older woman with long black hair, dissimilar from Katsumi. "You people are _so noisy."_ She was trying to read a book.

There were twenty or so other people visibly out and about at the midnight hours, and Milla was somewhat staggered. _'They really are a complex over here. Jesus.'_

Behind her, a chinese man walked up before her, and gestured to the visual of people. "How is it?"

This chinese man wasn't like the other one. He was in looser regalia, instead of the crimson outfit, and he had a black, triangular beard along the bottom of his face.

"...Interestin'." Milla gave a single nod.

"How about I show you to your room?" He offered. "The dormitories are accommodating, and considering your tire, it's likely pertinent."

A random thought entered Milla's tired mind. "...How about you an' yer fuckboy stop calling _flying around_ fuckin', _Aerial Ascent._ It's just _floating."_

"It was by popular demand." The man looked less than satisfied. "Also. My name is Yu Su. The handsome young man who helped you with flight, and to bring you here, was _Ya Su,_ my son. I don't believe he's stated it before."

Milla snorted. "Cool. Show me them dorms, yoo-hoo."

"_Yu Su."_


	3. A Thing or Two About Magic!

Camilla got out of bed.

"Nn- hnh…" She stretched her back, arms raised into the air. Vague sunlight shone in through her window—

'_Wait.'_ Something was off. _'Oh, right.'_

Milla scratched her head. Her long, messy brown hair swung around with each scratch.

She was in the Hakurei Magic Compound, and not her house. As such, no vague sunshine came through any window, because this bedroom had no windows.

'_At least, Hakurei Magic Compound's the name I'm givin' it, 'cause it makes more sense than whatever the fuck it was actually called.'_

Her room was, so far, fairly clean. It had a vanity to one wall, with a mirror. Her bed was pleasantly western; she could never get along with a futon. A single, dim white light hung from her room's ceiling, and she was able to switch it on and off by feeding mana to a panel on the wall.

'_It's got some stuff I never really had. Namely, an actual coffee table, an' more room. If I wanted more drawers again, I could just make 'em. Actually, I'm probably gonna just steal them from my parent's house.'_

'_If this gig actually lasts, it's gonna be so damn good, actually. 'Cause fuck livin' wit' the folks, seriously.'_

It was a sense of freedom. An ironically healthy one, at that. _'No hitches, like being in a dude's harem or any shit like that. Well, I dunno yet actually, I'll see. Sometimes stuff just goes wrong in unexpected ways. Best not ta count my chickens 'fore they hatch…!'_

Today would be her first day at this new facility. It was the day after she and Kiyoko had a disagreement. Last evening, mages had witnessed their tussle, and lied in wait at Milla's home.

They brought Milla here under the cover of darkness— and voluntarily at that, because Milla would really much rather live with a strange ninja mage organization than her actual parents.

'_Y'know, I feel like that says somethin'. At the same time, in this village, it really doesn't. I coulda been signed up for an arranged marriage if I was actually part of the Hakurei.'_

'_Being a Hakurei woman ain't completely all shits and giggles compared to bein' a western whore… but, like, it's the difference between being someone's dog, and just some dog. Y'get me?'_

'_Anyways, way I looked at it, arranged marriage is basically political prostitution. It's fancy, your family gets street cred, and you? You're still considered a dumbo bitch who's only good in bed, especially if you're not happy with the whole deal.'_

'_But, I dunno it varies. Hakurei chicks on the whole are looked at with more respect, make no mistake.'_

Though, she left some basic humanities unsaid in her vaguely annoyed recollection. Partners in political marriage were expected to perform their household rules like a duty, and this applied to both parties. While women had a more specific role than the men, the men still _had to _support the household, and with that came responsibilities, work, and a routine.

Even if the two didn't love one another, they had to work together to support their family structure, as was the societal expectation.

'_Or, y'know… as they say, 'wife handles the battle inside, while the husband handles the battle outside'. Meanwhile, if you fuck some western chicks or trap some dudes, they're just mistresses and indentured servants who gotta support themselves.'_

'_Kind of. I mean, murdering us westerners is technically illegal, but we're such nothings sometimes, that it's really easy to just say we were bein' stupid.'_

'_If Hakurei murder foriegners, s'usually 'cause they captured some and couldn't support them anymore, and didn't want them spreadin' rumors or plottin' after bein' let go. Such Hakurei pro'lly have ta be a certain kinda person. One with a funny idea of what counts as human, maybe. Maybe they'd just be outright homicidal at heart, but know not to just murder people.'_

'_How often's that actually happen? Hell if I know. The people who die like that—… are dead, so they ain't doin' no more talking!'_

Milla paused before her door.

'_...Oh, fuck, almost walked out like it was my house. Got too in my head. Where was I...'_

'_Oh, yeah. Meanwhile, if you mistreat your homeland, Hakurei wife though? Better hang yer head low, 'cause you might just get hung yerself, even if you're also Hakurei. S'an even playing field then.'_

The distinction was clear. Foreigners weren't respected here. Natives _were,_ very much so.

'_Or, uh, you might have yer throat slit, rather. Hangings don't seem common here. I think samurai even kill themselves in the name a' honor if they fuck up too. Weirdly… reverent, and polite. Kinda creepy, innit...'_

Milla had no spares of clothes with her at the moment, so she just threw yesterday's outfit on. Not that she varied it much; she had a lot of outfits at home just like it. _'Time ta put on my ol'... robe and pants.'_

Brown robe, brown pants. Easy to wear, conveyed that she was a mage, and… _'Between you and me, it's like a big blanket, so it makes me feel comfy...'_

Still, she wished she owned a witch hat. _'Peasants ain't allowed to wear hats. Only the fancy Hakurei aristocrats get ta wear hats. Didn't seem weird ta me at first, but like… they don't do that shit in Europe! I think.'_ She'd never actually _lived_ in Europe, so she didn't exactly know.

'_...The hat would really help me throw together a look too. Ah, whatever. It'd look kinda stupid anyway. This ain't a cartoon.'_

Now that she had her shoes on, she moved for the front door.

She hadn't noticed it so much the other evening, but it was a sliding stone door like the others. _'...How'm I breathing? Issa sealed stone room. ...Oh.'_

Looking up, she noticed a thick grate along the ceiling. _'S'that metal? Mmh, figures. Metallurgy never really interested me, but they oughta have someone who does it.'_

Coming up to the door, Milla put her hand on it.

'_Something'll happen if I focus mana into it. Wonder what. It'll probably leap out and sing me a song.'_

_Shoo~f._ Upon being activated, a cherry blossom-resembling sigil lit up along the front— a hallmark of many Hakurei banners and flags— and it began to raise into the ceiling.

Stretching her neck some, Milla plainly waltzed out into the midst of the hallway up here.

It had a big window along the front face. It was plain and wide, but Milla immediately sensed a contridiction…

'_Hold up. The exterior's slanted, like a pyramid. What the fuck's this window doing standing perfectly vertical?'_

'_Ah, fuck it. Too early to be thinking about that shit.'_

Turning right, she moseyed down the hallway, before coming to the common room.

Sunlight shone in through a weird, translucent stone partition in the midst of the ceiling ahead. It shined down on the magical fauna. _'...Neat.'_

Up here, a number of somewhat varied faces were making idle chatter.

"Awwh. You _suck."_

"Rrgh—"

"We need a _cat._ Cats are cute…"

"Can we make a _rug?_ This place ought to use a _rug."_

Then, two voices came to the forefront, as Milla inadvertently neared them...

"I am _not_ wasting my time making something that _cooks food._ You've asked me again and again, and I _cannot_ say it interests me."

"I can never understand how you people can be _so_ rude."

"...You're one to talk, _Hakurei._ I know I'm not really proving the point I want to prove— but your friends back at the village _really_ don't convince me otherwise _either."_

'_Blue-haired twit really would argue wit' a Hakurei.'_ Milla slowly centered on the quiet argument she came up to...

"Alright." Milla came up to them plainly. "Blue-hair. What the actual fuck is your name."

He fought a grin, making a weird expression towards her. "...Henry. Henry Dresler."

'_Dunno why that was bothering so much. S'like I scratched a bad itch.'_ On that note, she scratched the back of her head…

"I don't believe any of my fellow faith would be so mindless as to use an expression like _'actual fuck'_ to ask a question." The Hakurei woman returned.

She had somewhat fluffy black hair, that went down to her shoulders, done up in three different tails. _'Wowie, look at this ponytail queen.'_

"Yeah, your 'fellow faith' would strip down a western hoe in broad daylight and make her suck dick behind the counter." Milla returned. "So I wouldn't—" She began to grin at the girl's increasingly offended look. "So I wouldn't be so sure, if I were you…!"

"They—..." The black-haired woman sighed. "Not all of them—..."

'_Well, fair. Broken clock's right twice a day.'_

"Cool." Milla was done with this. "Who the hell runs the place?"

Henry gestured with his thumb. "Center door along the back. You'll know it when you see it. Wouldn't advise it. Yu Su'll probably speak to you directly. He's a… _community overseer_ of sorts. He'll get you oriented."

"...That better not be a fancy word for 'fucked 'till I can't walk straight', or I'm gonna be mad." Milla looked slightly displeased.

Henry snorted. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

Milla looked away. _'Yeah, did just wake up. Fuckin'... whatever.'_ Being sixteen was an experience.

Wandering away, she browsed up to the edge of the catwalk. There was a rail guarding of sorts there, made of polished wood and cast-iron metal.

"Oh?" Suddenly, an older woman was to Milla's left. "Are you new here?"

She was tall, far older, and had a motherly vibe to her that Milla could place immediately. _'Oh, great.'_ Her first reaction was to recoil slightly.

The brown-haired lady smiled, despite Milla's visible displeasure. "...I just came to say hi."

'_How do some people like this even keep calm, in this world? What is there that makes them so damn happy?'_

"How are you feeling?" She asked Milla.

"As shitty as usual." Milla had no swear filter, as was the usual. "What's got _you_ all chipper?"

"...Why wouldn't I be?" The woman gave Milla a patient smile.

"Because everything's shitty. It feels like us chicks— us _foreigners—_ are constantly made inta toys, no one thinks before they fuck each other over, and overall, there's nothing to really _be_ happy about."

...The woman continued to smile patiently. "Well. If you always look at the downsides, life will always seem grey. It's the little things that keep you happy. Your friends. Your family. Nature."

"Nature wants to kill us, no one's worth making _friends_ with, my family is hot trash, and my one friend—..."

"Your one friend?" The woman, of course, inquired about that.

Milla glared back. _'Here we go. She found the hook she wants ta cling to. These sagely-types always do.'_

She tried to reply in a way that conveyed her understanding. But, she knew this sort of exchange really never turned out like that. "It's complicated. But—... if you wanna know, I'd consider her at best _neutral."_

"Don't you feel happy around her?"

Milla was tempted to roll her eyes, but resisted fulfilling the stereotype. "Look. Look. I've talked with—... I _know_ how this conversation goes. We're gonna be doing nothing but talking about my shaky relationship, _you're_ gonna say it'd be wise for me to shack up with my _one_ friend in this whole damn village, and it's just gonna make me frustrated 'cause my situation's more complicated than that."

The woman blinked twice.

"I ask again, _what_ is there for _me,_ specifically I guess, to be happy about in this whole damn place." Milla pressed her point. "'Cause _no,_ my friend is _not_ the one chink in my armor that reveals what I could be using to be happy all the time. An' if finding happiness is _that hard,_ I still feel like almost the _entire_ village is absolutely depressed."

"It's hard to say." The woman came to a conclusion. "Everyone has different values."

'_Yeah, hard to say, huh. Welcome to hell.'_

"But, if you don't look for happiness yourself—"

"Oh, shut the _fuck_ up." Milla stared down at the magical fauna, which seemed oddly regular under the day's sunlight.

She remembered what Kiyoko said the other evening, and it stuck in her head. "None of this can be changed."

Silence. Successful silence, Milla considered it. Not that depressing this woman was her goal, but she wanted to show that such a touchy-feely way of analyzing the situation wasn't helping anyone else.

'_You can be happy about whatever you want. You can ignore whatever you want. But don't go tellin' me, 'oh just go find some happy in the bushes over there'— that ain't how it fuckin' works. Sometimes, the world just sucks, life just sucks, and you start to realize everything sucks.'_

"...I think happy people just don't think about those things." The brown-haired woman decided. "I think everyone can agree— everyone with sense, that is— that they're bad. It's observable. But, society… everything is so complicated, that no one man can change the world so simply. I— I mean, I'd like to believe one man can make a difference, and he really can, but…"

'_...I'd like to believe it too.'_ Milla thought back to the last evening, with Kiyoko. _'I'd like to believe we coulda, somehow. If we just came at the situation from a different angle, maybe. Maybe if I knew and could've convinced Kiyoko when we had time.'_

It took her a second to recall Kiyoko's reasoning. _'She didn't want to give up her way of life...'_

"It may take a concentrated effort at times, but people stay happy by either ignoring or choosing to ignore the worse parts of life. Because, well… they're just what they are. They've already accepted them.

"You look young, so it makes sense for you to be so… furious, about it. All I can say is, if you want to change the world, it's up to you to commit yourself to it."

As Milla mulled over the motherly woman's words, the older woman smiled again. "I'm sure you know the saying, 'nothing in this world is free'. Happiness may not exactly require money, but… it requires perhaps, a layer of strategy that may include money."

Milla wasn't about to let the woman just keep rambling without a direction. So, she asked a question. "So how do _you_ keep happy. What's _yer_ secret?"

...The woman smiled. "I keep living. ...Or, to put it less poetically, I focus on the people I care about. I keep my interactions with things that displease me to a minimum. It's… fairly easy, living in this place."

'_Ah. Right.'_ Milla somewhat neglected this fact.

The magic compound was more or less a different social entity than the Hakurei-ruled village proper. While this was also under Hakurei dominion, it was self-sufficient, and people who resided here often didn't make contact with the village again.

'_...They probably could. But would they? ...No.'_

From how people interacted here, it was also particularly low-tension.

'_Everyone's got a slightly unique look to 'em, even the Hakurei losers. Aside from the Hakurei, everyone's got… a weird mixture of casual or costume-y clothes.'_

"Alright." Milla had to give her this. "If I catch ya around, after a week a' livin' here myself, I'll get back to you."

"...Oh." The woman hadn't taken that into account. "You _have_ only just come from the village, haven't you?"

'_Ah, fuck. Yeah, that'd do it, huh. Not that I imagine this stuffy little place is exactly paradise, but it's not fuckin'... shitville.'_

"Mmh." Milla scanned the people around them again. "Yeah."

'_Woah. Fuckin'... look at her. Wha~t.'_

There was a pale woman strolling around in what seemed like a black hakama and a black corset. Hakurei seals decorated either shoulder and her forehead, shining brightly.

Various other off-color seals adorned many other places, leaving her looking like a walking Tanabata tree. _'The fuck. What's with her…?'_

"This place is, I'd consider, overall more tight-knit and… _ethical,_ compared to the Hakurei." The motherly woman smiled. "You might find that you like it more here. Perhaps… much more."

Milla pointed at the walking talisman display. "What's goin' on with her?"

The woman stared where Milla directed. "...Oh. She's one of the dark mages."

Milla snorted. "Oh. How scary."

"They're really not so bad." The woman decided. "...But, even the Hakurei who oversee this place fear their magic. They typically catalyze their magic with their emotions in such a way that they may be unpredictable or dangerous. Or, so they say. I think they're just scared of that element."

"Strange." Milla's brows were furrowed. "Far as I know, the only dark mages 'round town are Hakurei… and like, basically really none a' them, 'cause everyone knows _one_ dark-lookin' spell at most."

'_I mostly see Hakurei doin' it. After all, mages were brought over here for elementalism, and dark… shit. Dark magic and spells and studies like, can combine with elemental shit too, but since they already have some dark practitioners here, why would they? Takes effort.'_

"Didn't Hakurei who actually _really used_ dark magic, wasn't that 'cause they were born on a certain phase of the moon?" Milla remembered.

The corset-wearing woman browsed over. "I can hear you two, you know."

Milla waved her off. "Yeah— hey, who the fuck're you? What's with the spooky—... the _spooky energy?"_

"The spooky energy." Her gaze was tired and drained. "Really."

"Words are hard, shut up." Milla grinned back.

...The pale woman gazed at the more motherly one. "Mamako."

Mamako smiled back awkwardly. "Gabriella."

'_...What kinda exchange's this!?'_

"So, what's the story…!?" Milla was curious. "Whisper ta me the secrets of yer _dark dark darkie dark_ powers."

...Gabriella's flat stare was accented by her even black bangs.

"Dark." Milla added.

"I was the child of a Hakurei dark mage, and a human who dealt with darkness, on _that_ phase of the moon." Gabriella explained.

'_...Wow, someone tapped out at the lottery, huh.'_ That was three uncommon ties to dark magic at once.

"As such…" Gabriella held up a hand.

_vhum, vhum, frwaar._ A pulsing, black-red orb of gradient-esque light emanated from her palm. Just looking at it filled Milla with an odd feeling. "Something that comes very hard for others, comes quite easy for me."

Milla beheld the pulsing, dark orb. It seemed to consume the light around it, shading it darker. "...How the fuck d'ya do _that?"_

Gabriella flicked her eyes up. "Popular question."

Mamako clarified a point. "You might not want to. You'd be looked at strangely. Or, if you _could_ practice it, looked at as a dark mage."

"...Never let that stop me." Milla didn't like being told no.

"You don't want to find out." Gabriella decided. "Take my word for it."

Milla wasn't one to back down, but Gabriella's soft, hushed and eternally partially exasperated voice convinced her otherwise for now. _'Whatever. I'll find out at some point. All these magicians around me, who might liberally show off their magic… s'like a fuckin' candy store for me.'_

'_I love figurin' shit out, and trying to recreate some things I see is part of that. Elements I don't work with, though… hmmh.'_

"If I'm ever of free time, I _may_ be inclined to show her a few parlor tricks, maybe…" Gabriella had a small frown. "But, the Hakurei keep me _quite busy,_ all things considered. They call me the closest someone of their blood has been to a youkai."

'_Has a Hakurei ever fucked a youkai?'_ Milla decided it was big brain time.

She posed this question. "Has a Hakurei ever gotten dirty wit' a youkai…?"

"...Why are you asking _me_ that." Gabriella grinned slightly, despite her attempt at looking dismal. "I'd imagine those who did were killed by others or themselves for dishonor, or something similar."

'_...Somehow, I've already done more talking here in the past two hours than I've done in the past two weeks in the village.'_

As the discussion slowly petered off, Milla saw Yu approach from the central door that was spoken of previously.

'_Ah. Yu Su Yooha Ding Dong's here.'_

He browsed up to them, wearing some manner of red-white regalia that seemed somewhat shy of an actual Hakurei priest outfit. It didn't include sleeves, and he had a yellow vest over the proper red-white cloth.

"Good morning." He somewhat awkwardly greeted them. "...Milla. When you have a moment—"

"Just spit it out." Milla didn't really care.

He snorted. "Well, as is standard practice here, the officials would like to see a demonstration of your current magical affinity. You being a newcomer, and all. It would also do well to let us know the potential and utility of what you're good at."

Milla pursed her lips.

'_...Hmm~.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

3 | A Thing or Two About Magic!

When people were evaluated to measure their magical ability, the test could go a few different ways.

Some used their magic for the creation of items, systems or abstract purposes and utilities. Those people would be tasked with a project, perhaps a preliminary purpose, or a puzzle that had to be prepared.

Milla wasn't one of those people. She used her magic to hurt people, to improve her abilities and deceive others. She had a drive for power.

Past the central doors in the main lobby, the two hallways it lead to culminated in a large, overcast-grey room at the far edge of the compound.

It had windows of glass, which colored the incoming light. Even though it may've been a brighter day outside, the colored panes gave the illusion of an overcast day, or the midst of a dim daytime storm.

Milla stood in the room's center. Along its back was an abstract-looking counter. _'Looks like someone took a triangle wedge and flipped it on its top. Like- a trapezoid! Yeah.'_

Some Hakurei-looking men and women she didn't know were on the other side of the counter, each with a different colored armband.

Yu gave them a bow, and turned to face Milla. "So… you wish to prove your magical ability through… a spar of sorts, yes?"

Milla gave him a nod. "Yeah. At this point, fightin' people is kinda my thing. Personally, it comes before a buncha other shit. You can't do what you want, if ya don't have the power to back it up. S'just how the world works."

Yu nodded. "Hmm. Interesting philosophy."

He looked to the council of Hakurei who'd spectate this. "...Your input?"

They gave deep nods. When they spoke, neither Milla nor Yu heard it. _'They got a barrier up that mutes the sound comin' outta their lips. I couldn't be arsed to read said lips either.'_ They only spoke to each other.

On that note, sparring requests weren't a completely uncommon thing. Milla wasn't the only mage who used her knowledge and creativity as force.

Yu faced her. "Then… we may begin when _you _are ready."

Taking a step back, he arched himself into a martial arts stance, one palm held forward, the other close to his body. "But, I must remind you how sparring works. We will come at each other with, largely, full intent to do damage. The Hakurei have precautions in place to protect us both."

Then, he smiled. "Provided… I will of course restrain myself. This is a test of your magical affinity, not necessarily your _fighting_ affinity, even if you may be useful for the latter later."

'_Ah, cool. Should mean I can just kick his ass, then.'_

He walked across the room, to a yin-yang styled marking on the floor.

Milla looked back behind herself. _'...Oh. I see.'_

She stepped back onto a similar marking, this one blue-white, instead of red-white.

_Fwii~sh._ Both pads lit up with gold light briefly, when the two were positioned.

"Prepare yourself." Yu took a deep breath. "I will not hesitate to hurt you, if you don't take this seriously."

Milla smiled back. "...Likewise."

He blinked, then snorted.

'_...Actually, when does the whole 'fighting' part of the whole thing start—'_

"Begin." A voice came from their right, that of a Hakurei kannushi.

Immediately, Milla flicked her broom's length up onto her own right shoulder, like it were a staff. _'Alright. Let's see. Who makes the first move...'_

...After standing tense for a moment, Yu dropped his posture, and began to stroll forward.

'_Guy better be hot shit, if he's puttin' on all this show…'_

"Marble of Dao." He declared. Kneeling down, he drew a yin-yang marble from his pocket, and dropped it to the floor.

_Click._ On impact with the floor— which Milla now noticed was reflective, black marble— the yin-yang bounced back into the air.

But, below the reflective surface, two marbles bounced away from the impact, out from the first.

_Click- cli- click!_ Once the first one's force began to wither, the two marbles in the mirrored world under the floor came up _through_ the floor, into the real world.

_Cli- click!_ When they met the floor, their impacts divided into four marbles under the floor's surface.

The cascading reaction was quick. These marbles would expand outward in a cone and overtake her half of the room. _'And I'm gonna bet, I'm not gonna wanna be near them.'_

_Click! Click! Click!_ Each time the marbles completed a cycle, the amount created by each impact doubled. The marbles began glowing, bouncing higher and creating louder impacts as the reaction continued.

Milla began going to the left—

She paused. Yu began strafing to the side of the cone she was moving towards.

'_Oh, hell no.'_ She looked down at the expanding triangle of bouncing marbles.

She ran for it, as if she was going to go straight into the center of it. _'Bet he ain't gonna bet on this…!'_

_Click!_ She bounded off the floor, crossing over the midst of the triangle before it grew too large—

Yu's face snapped into a smirk. "Flying is _useless. _Mana—"

"_Hup!"_ In actuality, Milla had forgotten about flying. With a gust of wind beneath herself, she did a forward flip, crossing right over the triangle.

_Pap!_ She landed on her ass on the other side, now with an equal wedge of the marbles on the floor between herself and Yu. "Oof…"

"...Oh." Yu snorted. He wasn't really sure what to say about that…

'_These marbles…'_

Standing back up, Milla continued to examine them.

'_Wonder if he uses them for more attacks. Considering the wind off my jump interrupted nothing… and these're just fuckin' marbles, something more might be at play behind them. They're light magic, so fuck if I know how they work in particular.'_

Then—

_Woosh!_ Yu did a sideways flip straight over the wedge between himself and Milla.

'_Holy shit, he's a ninja!'_ Milla beamed in surprise, as he spun four times in the air on the way to her ground. _'Well— yeah, of course he is!'_

Skidding back on her heels, Milla aimed the bell-end of her broom up at him. "Psychic _Splash!"_

_Fwuush!_ She shot a glob of water at him—

On landing, he weaved his whole upper body under it. Spinning around from this position, he leapt at her while facing backwards.

_Cli- click!_ His arms behind his back, he flicked two gold-colored yin-yang marbles at her. As he leapt, the bottom heels of his sandals met the marbles, sending them splashing forward.

"_Hoo~h!"_ Then, with an unnatural motion, gold lit up along his right leg, and it drew a crescent in the air as he brought it all the way up.

_WOOSH!_ Springing from the ground, he came at Milla as she took notice of the flanking marbles, to cleave the golden leg straight down onto her.

"Psychic _Balloon!"_ After twirling her broom around for no reason, Milla aimed the bell-end at him again—

_Fwii~sh!_ She blew up the blue balloon before herself with her magic—

_KAPOP!_ His leg came down on it, before it could fully expand.

_WHAM!_ Yet, he finished his kick, and it only connected with the floor.

Milla skidded backward on her ass, having used the balloon's popping force to distance herself. _'Holy— shit, that musta had some force behind it! Dude's reinforcing his limbs and everything!'_

Then, she saw it. When his kick met the floor, a huge yin-yang was sent hurtling by the blow's momentum in the mirror world beneath herself.

She felt its mana travel through the stone-like floor. _'Light bullshit, through and through.'_

'_He's not actually sending yin-yangs through a different world on the floor. Mana is travelling in a straight line along the floor, where he'll summon an erupting yin-yang under my ass.'_

'_The orb I see in the mirror world? It's a magic light created relative to myself, in the air, positioned so that I can't see it myself.'_

She put her heel on the floor, and fed her own mana into it. _'Let's use water. Water's fun.'_

As the invisible, tracing blotch of energy came for her, she sent creeping water from her heel to disperse it. Her mana and his got tangled up, both becoming confused.

_Woosh!_ Along the floor ahead of herself, to the left some, a misshapen yin-yang shot out, before dispersing as useless light energy.

'_Hah!'_

Despite the illusion of the orb underneath the floor going for her ass, when it reached her nothing happened. The actual attack part of the spectacle was already wasted.

Yu stood from where his leg met the floor, meters ahead. "...Hmh. I see you saw through it."

_woosh._ Wind pushed up on Milla's butt, and helped her stand back up. "Nnh. Y'think I don't understand the basics? Mana makes shit happen. Mana ain't exactly _discreet_ 'bout it, either."

"I'll just have to be more direct, then." Yu declared.

_WOOSH!_ That's when he spun around once.

_FWA- FWA- FWA- FWAM!_ Blue, non-elemental orbs pounded against the floor before himself, leaving stains of luminescent mana on impact with the ground.

There were four of them. Though they were marble-sized when they touched the floor, as they bounced into the air, their forms became immense, huge and vague.

Milla ducked under the cloud of fluffy, ominous blue magic. _'Ho~h fuck! Yeah, bit more direct than—'_

Beneath the orbs, Yu slid up with frightening speed.

"_Psychic Shock!"_ While Milla could anticipate magical attacks with variant ease, physical tells and attacks were a whole different beast she preferred to avoid thinking of entirely.

_Woosh!_ Yu stopped his advance, when she tried to prod him with her broom, its bristles crackling with electricity.

_CLICK! _With his offhand, he chucked a blue marble straight into the floor with blinding speed.

'_The mana combines the moment it hits the floor, packing tightly together. S'why it makes a satisfying 'fwam' on impact with stone.'_

The moment the orb expanded into a cloud, it caught her, Milla unable to move nearly fast enough to avoid being clipped by the whole of it.

But, since it was so vague, it wasn't a big bowling ball of doom. It was gaseous, or fog-like. Despite that, the orb stopped around Milla, revolving dizzyingly fast.

'_...Oh, so that's what it does. I can't move.'_

The yin-yang floated into the air, carrying Milla with it.

'_Aawh, that's cool. He grabbed me by engulfing my mana entirely in his! Dude must have a lotta mana, shit. Or rather, s'not hard to make it encapsulate a big space, but you'd've thought he spent so much of it already.'_

"Sloppy." He smirked up at her. "You're at my mercy, now."

'_Still, holding onto people ain't easy. I can't move my limbs… but, he's only putting pressure on specific joints. Of course he couldn't hold onto a whole damn person from every angle. Which… hmm. I wonder.'_

"Damn." Milla shook her head. "That's kinky."

Yu blinked. "Ex— excuse me?"

'_Let's see if I can make 'em lose enough focus!'_

She allowed herself to let her eyes narrow, and her smile to curl slightly. "Oh? I— I let that slip, didn' I?"

"Of all the things to say—" He tried to rile himself up, but Milla interjected.

Glancing her gaze away unsurely, as if she was embarrassed, she met his eyes again. "I— I just kinda like it when a guy holds me, okay…!?"

He paused.

'_Ooo—'_

Her left arm was free. That was all she needed. She began to move it in a circular motion—

_Fwa- fwash- fwush- zap- fwash!_ More limbs became free. She randomly catalyzed different elements along her limbs, and began to randomly stretch them all out in different directions.

"Yeah yeah _yeah!"_ She beamed wickedly. "Nnn— hehehe!" The blue yin-yang of magic began to dissipate, expanding indefinitely, becoming more translucent, until it was no more.

"You—..." He swallowed, and took a martial stance again.

'_If those marbles were just something stupid he did with raw mana… then, I…'_

_Pap! _"Oh?" Milla spanked her own ass, and beamed at him. "Didja want a piece a' _this?_ Hehahaha!"

_WOOSH!_ That's when he flipped into the air.

Milla steeled herself, and brought back the hand she used to spank her own ass. _'If this works as I think, this'll probably be over damn soon!'_

Stopping in the air, Yu held a palm down. _"Dao— of—"_

"_Hey!"_ Milla yelled, and slid back a meter. "How's _this_ for ya!? _Electro-Ball!"_

_Fwish!_ From her palm, she threw a glob of water.

_ti- tink, tink, tink._ It split apart, cold shaping it into five huge marbles of ice.

_ZA- ZAP, ZAP!_ Electric energy wrapped around the outside of it, a violent, yellow streak drawn in the air for an instant. When the marbles were left to ascend, blue lightning was drawn between each of them, arcing back and forth, leaving a path behind themselves.

Yu stopped yelling his spell, and his eyes widened.

_BAM!_ He came down onto the floor again with immense speed, landing hard on both sandals to avoid the hurtling, electric ice marbles.

_CLI- CLI- CLICK!_ They rebounded off the ceiling, spreading out into a curtain of different marbles on impact.

He took the projectiles at face-value. Such little pellets wouldn't impact him, nor would they conduct their electricity well as ice.

Milla held her broom out, bell-end pointed up into the air. _"Psychic Fire!"_

_FWOO~M!_ A blast of fire shot into the air.

_Fvhir! _Yu shielded himself. _"Cautionary Barrier!"_ The yin-yang adorned, gold rectangular barrier before himself was meant to block the fire.

But, Milla wasn't aiming for him. She was aiming for the electric-adorned ice balls.

'_I wouldn't hafta do this if they were non-elemental, but I got more practice wit' elements than I do just fartin' around with raw magic an' shit!'_

Yu smiled, the threat of the fire having passed right over him, not even meeting his barrier.

The heat melted the ice marbles. They were now huge, vague blotches of electrically charged water, raining down.

Even with his barrier still up, the water came down over Yu.

_ZA- ZAZAZAP- KAZAP- ZAP!_ His whole body locked up, the blue jolts assaulting him. _"Rrghn- nraa~h!"_

"An' _watch out!"_ Milla leered at him. "Fer the _real ones, _too!" She spun around—

_Fwa- fwa- fwam!_ She tossed three non-elemental orbs onto the floor before herself once she stopped. Yellow lightning arced out to join with them after she'd tossed them, giving an ominous hue to their neutral, blue-white tints.

_ZAP- ZAP, ZAP!_ The blue electricity bounced amidst them as they ruefully hurtled for Yu, his magic barrier falling away as he shuddered involuntarily due to the charged water all over his body—

Then, it was over.

_FWISH._ From the Hakurei council, a brilliant white light filled the entire room.

All the magic was immediately neutralized. Not a drop of magically-generated water, or a jolt of magic-induced electricity remained. Not a single increment of mana was out of place.

_thud._ Yu dropped onto his knees. "Haa— aah… ha~h…"

'_Oh— fuck, that feels… that feels weird.'_

Milla turned to the Hakurei there, and stepped closer menacingly. "...Don't _do _that. That was _weird."_

The tired-eyed Hakurei kannushi seated in the midst of the counter ahead snorted.

"You know," he began, "I definitely see potential in you."

"She's _definitely_ the kinda elementalist we keep looking for…"

"It's what they said western mages _would be_ when we got 'em. Her kind are rare."

"You say that like we've needed many in the past."

"We need more. It's because of the failure of our last search, that we have an economy-focused magician sector _at all,_ and not a full-front dispersion of the oni force on the mountain."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I think it is."

The guy in the center exhaled. "We can discuss this later. Your verdicts?"

"Hmm? She's fine."

"Fine? She's more than fine."

A woman with long, straight brown hair and a cute face stood up. "I know what we're all thinking. I think we can do better than our ancestors."

"Takako." One of the men spoke up. "That's disrespectful. Sit down."

"But it's _true."_ Takako insisted. "With adaptability like that…"

The bald man spoke up again. "She's also a huge _loose cannon._ So, what? We teach her to take on oni, then she walks around killing people?"

"No." Takako seemed to glare down at him. "I believe we can be _more_ than our ancestors. Learn from their mistakes—"

The bald man spoke over her. "That's an awfully dangerous—"

"Guys." The central man looked done with life. "Guys."

...They stopped.

"We'll think about that later. Okay?" He decided. "This is just the initiation analysis. Regardless of what we'll decide later… she's passed the examination, and should be inducted."

'_What a fuckin' strung together council. Feels weird, getting referred to like I'm not even stranding in front of them.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

_Thunk._ The entrance to the common room of the magical complex slid shut.

It had been a vague month since she'd been formally induced to the complex.

Compared to life at the village, it really was a lot better.

'_...Mmh.'_ She'd just returned from a visit there, actually.

She had searched for Kiyoko in all the usual spots they used to hang out. In fact, she'd done this every other day or so. No matter the time of day, or where she looked, Kiyoko was nowhere to be found.

'_Must be really fuckin' busy.'_

Strolling up to the magical fauna again, Milla stared it over plainly.

"Aa—" Peter was in the midst of it, with a pair of clippers. His left arm was burning for some reason, and something was trying to take over the back of his shirt. "Hey there, Milla!"

'_Ah. Peter's turn to trim the plants. What the fuck's he doing. Oh.'_ It took her a moment, but she realized. _'He's fire resistant. He's lit himself on fire to keep the fungus in the garden from overtaking his skin. Clever, clever.'_

_Fwoom!_ As the fungus on his back began to overtake his torso, his whole body ignited with red and amber, raw fire flourishing up his figure.

"Nn— hehehehe!" He giggled, as the green-black-blue smog made by the flames plumed up. The tar-like mist nearest him faded out from the raw heat, becoming ash instead.

_fwoof._ Then, he cooled the heat, and looked around to make sure he didn't catch the plants ablaze too. "A'right, good…"

'_He's good at fire magic. ...Just, fire magic. Nothin' else, really.'_

"Aah." Mamako was heard, to Milla's right. "Welcome home."

...Milla gave her a flat look. "Home, y'say."

'_Never thought about it, but 'mama'ko is an oddly prophetic name for her. Wait…'_

Before Mamako could retort, Milla pointed at her. "I never thought about it before, but are you someone's mom?"

"...Mmm." Mamako hummed, and seemed to freeze. "No. I could see how you'd be mistaken."

'_Oh. That— huh.'_ She noticed how Mamako suddenly became crestfallen. _'Yikes. Let's not go there…!'_

"Ah." So, Milla feigned ignorance of Mamako's palpable, visible mental weight. "Y'know, just wondering. I swear some people are born with mom proportions."

Snapped from her thoughts, Mamako snorted. "Tell me about it."

"Like, who the hell named you 'Mamako'?" Milla grinned. "Awfully prophetic, if ya ask me…!"

"...Would it be?" Mamako didn't see the irony. Because, in proper Japanese, there was nothing abnormal about the name Mamako.

But, Milla spoke both Japanese and English, having been raised in the Hakurei village. "Y'see, in English, 'mama' is short for, like, _mom._ Slang of a sort, y'see."

...Mamako looked worried. "I think I see what you mean. Oh, dear..."

'_Woohoo. Feel existential dread, and know that you are in fact a huge punchline.'_

Milla looked around idly. Many faces here were familiar now, to variable degrees. She cared for some more than others, obviously.

'_Everyone's too much of a weirdo to form cliques, somehow. I think the biggest one is like, 'old people versus young people', and even that's not a big divide 'cause the old people here are as big a' whackjobs as the young'uns…'_

Milla moved across the lower floor, to the open door in the right corner of the room.

Inside this new room, clean white light shined down from various skylights. It was peculiar; this room was open to the air outside, with huge square shafts in the ceiling extending through the stonework above.

It made the room feel subterranean and night-like, despite daylight being able to make bright patches of sun here or there.

As for _what_ this room was, it was a kitchen. The skylights were to let the rain clean the floor, culminating in a drain of sorts along the side of the room, which fed out of the complex.

'_Although, if ya ask me, it's more like we leave the bread crumbs to the algae!'_

Milla meandered into the kitchen's midst, coming for the counter in the back, when she took pause. Her gaze panned to a picnic table to her right.

'_Oh? One of the Hakurei head honcho armband freaks is lazing about, here.'_ Milla recognized this as a semi-rare event. _'There's two of 'em!'_

One had a teal-green armband, colored like most figured the wind would look like, if it had color. _'...Why the hell's it like, teal-green, anyway? Whatever.'_

The other had a number of green armbands, a reflective yellow-teal one, a similar teal-green one, and an official looking red-white-yellow band. _'Holy shit, she's got enough bands that they ought to be annoying her just wearin' 'em, let alone us who've gotta look at 'em.'_

The teal-green one simply said 'wind', while the other ones the decorated girl wore said many things. 'Shield', 'temperer', 'sharpener', 'spirit of the wind', 'fairy whisperer'...

"Whassup, bitches." Milla immediately was as crass as possible. "Gorgin' yer shitters wit' crap, t'day?"

Takako, the brown-haired lady with even bangs, had her jaw ajar. "Aa—... mm— Milla, how dare— nn…" She was really thrown off. "Of— of all people to—"

"Takako." The girl next to her held up a hand. "Relax."

"But—..." Takako looked pensive. "Tsubasa?"

"She's just being facetious." Tsubasa didn't seem to care. "Or, um, in other words… I- I dunno how to put that simply. Milla was her name?"

Tsubasa was a somewhat short girl, with even, fluffy brown hair that was similar to Takako's. _'She's pretty adorable, but it's always the adorable Hakurei who're the biggest bitches.'_

'_...Usually.'_ So far, Tsubasa hadn't made herself out to be immediately pretentious.

"Anyway." Tsubasa smiled at Milla. "How are you?"

"...How'm I?" Milla was seldom asked that question by just anyone. "Good, I guess."

"Good." Tsubasa nodded. "Me and Takako are eating lunch here."

"Hey, hey!" Then, another voice was heard.

A girl with pastel teal hair ran up. She wore mint-tinted, windy rags, and walked around barefoot.

Her wings told Milla what she was instantly. _'Oh! S'a fairy?'_

"Tsu-chan!" The short-haired fairy practically chirped, as she reached the table. "What're we gonna do today…!?"

"Kaze-chan." Tsubasa gestured to the table. "Sit with us. You too, Milla."

"...I won't make ya lose cool points, or anything?" Milla wasn't sure of the idea…

"I don't mind." Tsubasa gestured again. "My friends have talked about you some."

"Oh, have they?" Milla knew to take what info she could get. "What're they sayin'?"

_thump._ Milla plopped down plainly across the picnic table from her. Kaze— the short-haired fairy girl— sat down on the table itself. "Mmh…"

"Well, nothing you wouldn't like." Tsubasa decided. "We've talked of your magic. Some of us haven't ever dealt with a fast-progressing elementalist before. A lot of the people we got from that 'run' of the west, they're not ambitious when it comes to their magic."

Milla let her gaze become cynical. "Wonder if the shitty village has anything to do with it."

"Mmm. Maybe." Tsubasa wasn't sure herself. "Anyway…"

'_...Anyway, huh?'_ Milla smirked. Tsubasa had fallen silent, having run out of steam in the moment.

Takako seemed to have relaxed, seated next to Tsubasa. While she was initially tense at Milla's presence, she seemed to heed Tsubasa's own comforted demeanor.

'_Good dog.'_ Milla shook her head. _'Damn Hakurei council can't even think for themselves, when they're in the presence of a 'superior'. Be it in the clan, their family, or just socially.'_

Reading Milla's constant, examining level stare, Tsubasa smiled. "Milla?"

"Hi." Milla didn't care that she noticed. "Yeah, I know. Not polite ta—"

"What made you want to pick up magic?"

Milla paused at Tsubasa's question.

'_...Awful analytical all of a sudden. I don't exactly mind, but…'_

Tsubasa answered it herself. "I picked up my discipline and instrument, because it spoke to me. I wanted to mix my art with my contributions to the Hakurei clan, because I didn't want to let go of my practice. I was born to either be a lesser maiden, or a member of this… western project."

She placed her hand on the midst of the table.

_Fwish._ With a flourish of light, shining metal actualized as if raising from the picnic table's wood. As it dimmed, it visibly became silver.

This was a koto. Milla recognized it because it was kind of huge; meant to be mounted on a table or stand.

"It was weak of me." Tsubasa admitted. "To not want to give up my practice, when duty called me. But, I still found a way. After all, isn't that the point of magic? To solve problems?"

Milla snorted. "Funny way a' puttin' that. I guess 'people you don't like' would fall indeed under problems."

"...Does that mean you learned magic just to hurt people?" Tsubasa had her brows slightly furrowed.

"Well, _no."_ Milla admitted. "It started— well, _I_ started, 'cause… it felt obscure, at first. Like I was goin' somewhere no one else had gone before. Even now, it still feels like it. Both the feeling of followin' in other researcher's footsteps, and going off on my own. It's… better than anything, really."

'_It's my livelihood, and my hobby. I wouldn't ever give it up.'_

"...But." Milla propped an arm on the table, holding her hand up. "One caveat, that'd make it not all sunshine and rainbows. I like hurtin' people. I like hurtin' people who deserve it. I like breakin' big egos. Society ain't built for people like me."

Smiling, Tsubasa thought on that, and shook her head. "It's really not. Fortunate you find yourself here. Magic isn't welcome in the national military, and you'd be no soldier. Even here… some of my friends believe you would gladly be a vigilante against youkai. A ruthless, crass beast who'd gladly experiment on them with your magic, with just a little careful direction."

"...Nice." Milla had half suspected as much, already. "I dunno if really involved elementalists like me were like, a _big thing_ back on the mainland, but…"

"If you are, we're still ignorant of your kind, and just happened to get a fairly limited sample pool." Tsubasa claimed, deciduously. "We treat those who progress vigorously with… sacrecy, I suppose."

"Yeah." Milla understood, but followed up as if it was vague. "They were ignorant if they'd think I'd just kinda play along to this whole 'ransacking youkai' thing like I'm a total bloodthirster. I'm an asskicker, not 'zactly a _murderer,_ ze."

"Oh?" Tsubasa took pause, at that. "...How do you feel about youkai, then?"

"Ta be decided." Milla supposed. "If they were goin' around eating and fuckin' up people? Sure, kill 'em. S'only fair. But, to kill an innocent to atone for a species, or to vanquish all youkai in the name of some…"

Milla met Tsubasa's gaze, her brows furrowing a single notch. "You see it too, ze. The marine youkai we spare fer profit. The fairy you _keep with you_ right now. Exceptions are being made, but we still wage indiscriminate war on so many other species without givin' it a second thought. Hell, we wage war on _each other,_ without givin' it another thought.

"It's all wrong." Milla decided. "...I'd much rather be killing the fucking Hakurei who make all the shitty decisions around here, than some psuedo-trustworthy youkai. I mean, fuck the idiot youkai too, but god, _damn._ Who're we to play god, when we're just as, if not _more_ shit, than them? Those we call _scum?"_

...Tsubasa sat there in vague vexation.

Takako's mouth was open. "...Tsu— Tsubasa— she just—"

"Takako." Tsubasa silenced her. "We are not her enemy. She speaks sense."

"She threatened the Hakurei." Takako protested. "Our friends…"

"I refer to them as friends, for there is no better word, but the clan who manages this compound is not close." Tsubasa decided. "We are a familial connection, but a distant one. I don't know anyone there, but I don't mind their company."

"...I had my suspicions, myself." Takako frowned. "Tsubasa—... does the clan mean anything to you?"

Tsubasa frowned too. "I—"

"Hey, ze." Milla pointed at Takako. "What's _your _name?"

...Takako blinked. "Uu— um. Takako—"

"Doesn't matter." Milla interrupted her at the very end, just to insult her. "Of all the times for you to grow a fuckin' pair, it had to be the moment that'd make you seem like the biggest fuckin' dumbass in the room."

Takako's mouth hung open.

"Oh— close your damn mouth." Milla insisted. _"Close it!"_

Takako did so, before retorting. "That is _no way_ for you to talk to—"

"Abababa—" Milla held up a hand, trying to talk over her with noise.

"_That is no way for you—"_

"_Abubububu!"_ Milla insisted. "Shut— the _fuck, up!"_

...Takako did so, fuming.

Reading Tsubasa's expression of vague disdain, Milla let herself cool down slightly. "Taky, takoyaki, teriyaki— whatever, you don't seem ta _understand_ what Tsu—... Tsu-whatever here's sayin'."

When Takako continued to glare, Milla continued. "Tsubi here _obviously_ cares about the clan. She _obviously_ cares about her position. Sure, she's kind of a pussy and didn't just commit hard one way or another, but how _could_ she?" That later part probably didn't mean anything to Takako, she realized.

"But, her doubts—... and, her reluctance to defend her family and clan. Is that not worrisome?" Takako proposed.

"What's it matter?" Milla retorted. "She still helps it. She still hangs out with _you,_ even though _you're_ a total loser, and—"

"How am _I_ a total loser!?" Takako had enough. "Coming from a western _rat_ like you!?"

Milla grinned. "Heh!? ...S'cause— it's because _you're—_ you are too fuckin' _dumb_ to be _kind_ to this person you _want_ to consider you a friend. You get mad that she don't consider you or her clanmates close friends. Now, let's slow down a second. _Why_ is that?"

...Takako didn't immediately have an answer. "Well—"

"Because yer all too damn _dense_ to understand what she's puttin' down. She don't feel _comfortable_ around you. The way you reacted to her _just now_ is _fuckin'. Exactly. The problem."_

Milla beamed, caught up in her own logic— in a good way. "Literally, the entire goddamn reason _you're_ mad at _her,_ is the same _exact reason_ she keeps actin' in a way that makes you mad. _You are your own damn problem."_

Takako stood up. "You—..."

She shot her gaze at Tsubasa. "...And—..."

Tsubasa's stare back at her was plain, almost bored.

Kaze, the mint-accented fairy, spoke up. "I, um, I only hang around Tsu-chan 'cause she's so nice all the time. If she wasn't… I um, I wouldn't!"

Takako stared down at the table. She rested her arms on it, and seemed to seethe.

"...I just—" She exhaled. "It's not fair."

Tsubasa was curious. "...What's not?"

"Why am I the bad guy?" Takako was blushing, glaring hard back at Tsubasa. "I— I'm just caring about the clan. Yet… _you_, and these idiots, are faulting _me_ for it?"

"No. We aren't." Tsubasa shook her head. "It's just a product of behavior. Or… I guess that's my kind way of saying… I— I wish you were more open-minded. About what other people could do, relative to the clan, and the family. I wish everyone were more open-minded. There'd be less conflict, less ignorance. Less disagreement."

Takako's gaze met the table again.

Silence. Between Takako's brooding, and Tsubasa's guilty expression, there wasn't much to say.

'_Well, ain't this just cozy.'_

...Slowly, gingerly, a plate floated overhead, from parts unknown.

Kaze saw the plate, and her face lit up. "Ooh! Tsu-chan! The sandwiches are here!" Softly, she claimed the plate before it could escape the table's grasp, and placed it down.

'_Aw! What? She's eatin' PB&J!? Kickin'!'_

Milla took one of the twenty or so sandwiches. "Yer just gonna eat like a _gallon_ a' sandwiches…!? Between you and Taki s'like _twenty_ sandwiches, ze! Ten each!"

Tsubasa grinned. "Wh— when we were done, I was gonna give the rest to someone… and Kaze-chan's here. Don't forget about her."

"Oh, yeah." Milla supposed that was fair. "Hell, I could go for _five_ 'bout now. Walkin' around the village gets ya hungry…"

...Looking at Takako's angry face, Milla held out a sandwich for her. "Say, 'aah'!"

"Fuck you." Takako blurted out.

"Pft- nnhehehe~!" Milla copied Peter's airy laugh by accident. "Aw, c'mon! Don't tell me s'too chewy! S'just peanut butter!"

"What…?" Takako didn't see how that was even tangentially related. "Don't—..."

She looked at Tsubasa, and how her emotions had nearly done a U-turn from Milla's simple, impulsive bombasity.

Takako quickly took the sandwich from Milla's offering hand. "Fine."

'_Relax. Let that stick slip outta yer clenched cheeks some time. Life feels a lot better that way.'_

"Actually." Milla focused on Takako. "Taki. Do you gotta take a shit?"

"Alright..." Tsubasa grinned, while Takako looked like she was ready to murder. "Mi— Milla…!"

"Who _put you_ on this world." Takako's gaze was incredibly pained.

Milla beamed. "My parents! Hey— if ya wanted to shank 'em, I might be able ta help!"

'_I don't think Taka-what's-her-face took anything away from our talk, somehow, but at least she didn't go totally apeshit like any other moron would've.'_

As the other girls claimed their sandwiches, Milla reached for one herself.

'_Where were we, 'fore this bozo got her panties twisted over clan shit? Ah, right, me learning magic.'_

"So, yeah." Milla got them back on track. "Kinda neutral on the whole 'youkai' thing. First learned magic 'cause it was interesting, but now it's interesting _and_ useful. An' I'm technically gettin' paid for it even more now than I used ta, so y'know… s'not all that bad."

Swallowing her bite, Tsubasa nodded. "Mmh. I think it's intelligent of you to be so adaptable. It's basically why you disagreed with the heir, on the night of her coming of age rite, isn't it?"

"...Yeah." Milla admitted. "It is."

Takako snorted. "Of _course_ you'd openly disagree with the heir. To think she graced you with her presence."

...Milla grinned. "She couldn't grace me wit' a wet diaper."

"What does that even _mean."_ Takako was absolutely confused.

"Interesting." Tsubasa entirely ignored Milla's outlandishness. "There's not many people who'd dare to say no to the heir, or to the royal family."

Tilting her head back, Milla smiled like her PB&J sandwich was more illustrious than it really was. "Yeah? No big deal t'me. 'Least, not with Kiyoko. Bitch is soft. She'd've been nothing without me, an' she knows it."

'_I'd've been nothing without her, for a good while. We kept each other sane, in this land of nothing.'_

...Milla checked on Takako. At this point, Takako was sitting in abnormally crestfallen silence. _'What a strange chick.'_

They continued to eat in relative silence, for awhile.

Milla's mind ran over the beats that lead here repeatedly. _'My interests in magic, my stance on youkai…'_

"Who _actually_ are ya, to this whole thing?" Milla asked Tsubasa. "Pretend I can't see yer twenty different arm bands."

Tsubasa snorted. "...I'm one of the leading organizers. Well… not that I do any organizing, myself. I handle safety, security, and research animals and youkai."

Her gaze returned to her koto, which held the plate of sandwiches atop it. "This research with youkai… it necessitates a sort of, 'questions first, shoot later' policy, to how I deal with them. How I deal with people, as well. It's something that comes natural to me, so it's perfect. Despite this… some people are easily confused by what I do."

"People are confused in general." Milla decided.

'_Haven't seen her here all month. She probably has shit ta do… or, she just doesn't like hangin' 'round here.'_

Tsubasa met her gaze again. "Milla?"

"Mmh?"

"Would you kill? If it'd keep your way of life stable?"

Milla looked up from her sandwich.

Tsubasa was smiling. "Say, for example… if you had to kill a youkai to stay here. Or, we'd imprison you, or kill you in return. You want power, right? You want to meet Kiyoko's glare again, right?"

Milla furrowed her brows.

"Would you do it for her? For yourself?"

...Milla smiled. "Depends. Someone might die. Context would decide who."

Tsubasa reinforced her own smile. "Hold onto that way of thinking. It's something I see too rarely, these days."

'_...Do I take this as a victory? Or, do I take it as somethin' circumstantial? This girl might just like what I'm puttin' out. Doesn't mean she's sayin' Kiyoko's right or wrong in what she did, or felt she had ta do.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

It was Milla's second month at the magic complex.

She stood on the topmost walkway, on the outside. It was a grey sort of day.

The castle wall-like walkways along the pyramid-esque structure were oddly novel. _'I've gotten inta the habit of walkin' around on these recently. Bit funny lookin', but you don't see that much stone architecture of this scale in the village proper.'_

She inhaled, and smelt settled rain and water in the air. _'Rained just the other evening. S'been doing that a lot, the past week.'_

She'd been attending the village less recently. It didn't seem like Kiyoko would be getting any free time for the rest of summer, it felt like.

'_I could be missing the one time she browses the village in forever. But…'_

She shook her head, and stopped staring into the nearby forest. _'Whatever.'_

It was a constant weight on her, in a way. She wanted _a_ conclusion to their disagreement, at this point. To continue the discussion.

But, she also found solace in the simple notion that it really _couldn't_ continue. _'Kinky obviously ain't returnin' to town any time soon. So, there's really no helpin' it.'_

If Milla knew her very position at this moment in time, she'd make a brisk beeline there. No such luck was in the cards.

She reached one of the corners of this topmost tier walkway.

Up here, Henry Dresler, the bespectacled blue-haired man she'd met two months ago, was staring off into space along one of the rough, square railings.

'_Ah.'_ Milla had nothing in particular to say to him, so she just kept to the slope wall and made a short turn onto the next hall—

"Aa— nnh." A girl let out soft noises, when Milla bumped into them.

"Wha— freaking…" Milla was almost incredulous. "I'm even bumpin' inta people up _here._ Watch where yer— ah."

It was Tsubasa Hakurei. Her full name was Tsubasa-ken Hakurei, but only the most formal people would include the extra part of her first name.

'_...People don't just call each other 'Hakurei' around here. 'Cause, y'know, half the fuckin' population is Hakurei. People'd get confused real quick…!'_

"Oh." Tsubasa smiled up at her. "It's you."

"Where the hell'd _you_ come from?" Milla half-grinned. "I swear, people come an' go from this place like ghosts."

Tsubasa smiled wider. "Maybe we _are_ ghosts. Maybe we're just the friends you wish you had."

...Milla shook her head. "I must dream pretty damn down to earth, then."

"You don't like it here?" Tsubasa tilted her head.

Milla tilted her own head. "Mmm? S'not the worst thing in the world. Most people're fine. Just…"

'_Dunno. Not really connecting with the people here, even if they don't make me wanna kick them in the neck.'_

"Not really my idea of paradise." Milla decided.

Tsubasa didn't say anything.

'_...We just gonna stand here like a couple a' assholes?'_

Over the past few months, Milla had practiced magic both of her own volition, and as the complex itself recommended.

Milla had mostly studied. Though she _connected_ with many denizens of the complex on a surface-level, it had to be said that none of them were necessarily her _friends._ None of them were Kiyoko.

'_They all feel hokey. Shallow. Not driven. Not worth my time. Fun to fuck around with, sure— but I'd be a loser if I spent time on them. They don't got knowledge to offer me. They don't seek knowledge, either.'_

On that note, she was somewhat socially isolated. _'I mean, I do want someone ta open up to. But— this is the sacrifice we've gotta make. Me and her. I know she doesn't feel good on the inside either. But no matter what, I'm finding my way closer to the top— and she's gonna see me there.'_

The complex offered her many resources on her ascent. Notes and reflections of mages who came before, who wielded great power.

'_Of course, they always had a sorta caveat to them; they always had a catch. Be it obsession with a particular element, a drive for destruction, slowing motivation and crippling lethargy, or, y'know, any number of personality traits.'_

'_But, most of them were totally obedient to the youkai huntin' idea, too. They hated youkai, had a grudge wit' youkai, they fueled some kind of rage against youkai. Their interests and the Hakurei's lined up just fine. For the most part, at least. There were exceptions, of course.'_

'_The big thing? That drive. They were driven. Even idiots like Peter or Henry here could be what the Hakurei consider their next big break. If only they had a reason to become more. Without that drive, they're just numbers. Members of the community. Just like the Hakurei fucks who populate the village.'_

'_Uninteresting. Ungrowing. They'll be roughly the same people, with the same problems, when I'm—'_

Milla's thought process halted.

"Do you think a _paradise_ is something you can obtain?" Tsubasa questioned.

Milla snorted, and she replied on impulse. "Pft. No."

'_Depends on your idea of paradise. Realistic paradise.'_

"...That's good." Tsubasa nodded in agreement. "I don't think true happiness is a thing anyone can so simply obtain. Not in concentration, like everyone wants."

Milla snorted. "Ooh? So you think we can find it in little bits?"

"Yeah. It's hard now, but… maybe, one day, things will be better." Tsubasa resolved.

Milla found the way she addressed it weird. _'...Feels like all this hopeful talk is like admitting defeat.'_

With that, Milla moved to push past her.

'_Not totally wrong, though. Life takes work. It takes work to get to where you wanna be. Nothin' comes from nothing.'_

"Um." Stepping aside, Tsubasa watched Milla walk off. "...Bye?"

'_I wish I could talk with some of them bastards I read about in my notes.'_

Milla half-heartedly raised an arm to see Tsubasa off, as she walked not bothering to look back.

She looked up at the grey-white sky.

'_The Hakurei here know how to force a basic drive in at least one person, with the youkai. A basic drive in their clansmen, with the youkai. Those loose cannons… I can't imagine they're exactly what the clan wanted.'_

Then, when she looked down, she saw Yu on the path before her.

He smiled, and nodded his head once. "I—"

"Yeah, yeah." Milla wasn't having it. "Your character arc's over, scram."

...He blinked, now more jaded. "But—"

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Later that evening, Milla wandered down the inner corridors of the magical complex.

At night, it retained that hazy blue fog to the hallways it typically had. _'I feel like, if a youkai ever attacked here, this damn blue fog would be especially unhelpful.'_

"Omh— mmh…" She bit into a big leg of fried chicken. It was a sort of recipe unknown to the Hakurei village proper, and it came from one of the western immigrants who resided in the complex here.

'_Pretty sure you need magic to actually do it, anyway. At least, over here. Back in the dude's home country, they probably had a real technique normal people could do.'_

'_Also, it's really fuckin' good!'_

As such, she was in a good mood. _'These dim halls have a much better mood when I'm not in eternal bitch mode.'_

This particular hall wasn't one she really needed to be in. After she'd left the kitchen, she was just wandering around places she seldom went.

This particular hall was part of the lower floor's hall crawl, and it held mostly lab-like areas, and rooms of specific purposes. People didn't really loiter around this area; they spent most of their time in the dorms or the common foyer.

'_Nice and lonely.'_ Milla would rather be alone. The cafeteria was too crowded.

Then, Milla heard the pounding of boots down the hallway.

"Aa— aah…" Gabriella panted, as she sprinted down the hall, before stopping. "Milla…"

"Oh." Milla saw her. "'Sup, Gabby."

"Do you not feel it?" Gabriella's eyes were hard. "It's ahead."

'_Fuckin'... what?'_ Milla furrowed her brows, and looked ahead.

Dark magic. A massive surge of dark magic from ahead.

"Alright." Milla slowly turned to her. "Did you open a portal ta Makai by accident?"

Gabriella snorted. "Nn— no. They know everyone's eating— we're being attacked by youkai."

Milla withheld some chuckles. "Se— seriously? That's what's got ya worked up?"

"There's dark signatures all over the place." Gabriella confirmed.

"...I feel like the Hakurei would shut this down right quick." Milla shook her head. "Everyone in a crowd's pro'lly safe."

"But— the ones who _aren't…"_ Gabriella exhaled. "Namely, _us,_ for one thing."

...Milla bit into her chicken leg again. "Mmh… nnn." The combination of spices was more flavorful than candy, and richer than the common meat at dining halls in the village.

"Milla." Gabriella fluffed up, her black hair swaying outward. "Take this _seriously."_

_Clack. Clack._

Milla looked down the hall ahead.

From the blue fog, the youkai was exposed. A suit of armor, red black and gold, with no wearer.

It was samurai armor. The vacant helmet emanated animosity; the mere metalwork glaring ahead at the girls, its katana emanating an amber energy, bright like the sun.

"...Cool." Milla liked it. "Hey— we oughta like, tame it."

Gabriella withheld laughter. "Wh— _god,_ Milla. It almost killed me. Seriously—..."

Milla held up her chicken leg. "Hey, buddy! You hungry!?"

"Shut _up…!"_ Gabriella insisted. "M— Milla…!"

...The ethereal samurai hung its head forward, as if glaring. It poised its blade in the air.

'_Awh. Not a food person, huh.'_

"...You're a dark mage, ain't ya?" Milla looked at Gabriella. "Can't ya just cast super evil explosion, or whatever you do?"

"It absorbs dark energy." Gabriella returned. "...I think it wants _me."_

'_I feel like possessed armor are sorta common around this place, though. The village, too. Fuckin'... wonder why these dead boys are so pissed off.'_

"I mean, you _do_ got that exotic vibe ta ya." Milla admitted. "If I was a guy, I'd probably fuck ya."

_Clack! Clack! _Gabriella saw the armor stomp closer. "That's really _not_ helping right now…!"

"Can you like…" Milla furrowed her brows. "Talk to it? Y'said it wants ya. Maybe it'd take ya out to dinner, or something."

...Gabriella double-took. "Milla, what the _fuck."_

Milla beamed. "Aa— alright, maybe that last part ain't happenin'— but like, _can_ you talk ta it…!?"

"...Per— perhaps." Gabriella decided. "But— if it tries to kill me—"

"Try now." Milla insisted.

'_If a dark mage can't talk ta a spirit, I'm a fuckin' cat lady.'_

...Swallowing her nerves, Gabriella held an arm forward.

Her black hair flared up, and her eyes became aglow with a light-devouring energy. _"Spirit."_

_click._ The armor paused its advance, only meters away from the two girls.

"_Inform me of your trespass."_

Silence. Then, Milla heard it.

A whistling, through the armor. Hollowness which hummed out across the hallway, like one blowing on a bottle.

'_Maybe we could use 'em as instruments instead. Dude, imagine a like, symphony of 'em hummin' like this! Aw…!'_

Gabriella faced Milla. "...It's seeking vengeance."

"'Cause of course." Milla assumed as much. "And?"

"Well…" Gabriella had also figured as much, but hearing it confirmed had a different feeling to her. "It's the Hakurei. It seeks to destroy the Hakurei."

"So we have somethin' in common, then." Milla jeered. "Any reason _why?"_

Gabriella's eyes lit up again, and she held her arm back out at the youkai. "..._Justify your destructive intent."_

The hum, in a slightly different way, as if the wind passed through the armor differently now.

After a brief pause, Gabriella faced Milla again. "He's angry, for the state his family has been left in. He was a samurai who served this village before."

'_...And, he served it before the Hakurei. Clap, clap, mystery solved, we can go home now.'_

"Well, ain't he special." Milla jested. "Him and like five hundred other dudes with angry-lookin' helmets."

'_Dark magic, hm. Never dabbled in it myself, but…'_

She wondered. _'A spirit's energy… if you can feel it with mana, you can manipulate it, right?'_ She felt at a flask of water that she'd fetched from the kitchen.

...Then, she took out the flask, and drank from it. _'Mmh. Aw, yeah, hits the spot…'_ Water was _good._

"_I implore you to step down."_ Gabriella's soft voice commanded the armor. _"We are neither your enemy, or—"_

_Clack, clack, clack, clack!_ The armor began to run closer.

Gabriella began to backpedal. "Aa— _Milla!"_

Milla lowered the flask of water.

_Fwish._ With a flare of gold light, her broom was in her left hand, bell-end pointed outward.

'_Armor's enchanted. Nnh, no one's watching, so I can use the li'l somethin' I cooked up for shit like this.'_

Her mana focused in the broom's tip. _"Cavitation Beam."_

It was the combination of the bursting energy of a starburst, and the violence of a non-elemental plasma laser.

_FWISH!_ With strange quietness, but intensity, a triple-pronged laser messily splayed from the tip of Milla's broom.

As it traveled, it remained fairly combined, however. It was colored as a neon-white-blue mess of shimmering light, with such brightness it hurt to look at.

It passed straight through the possessed armor. Gabriella's mouth went ajar, thinking it somehow phased through ineffectively. "Wha—..." But, the armor was frozen in place.

_Clack- clack…_ It began to stagger back. As the beam fed through the armor, it was as if air had caught inside the metal it was composed of itself. The metal plating bubbled, expanding and enlarging, glowing with molten coloration as some of it was heated abruptly to make some of the inflating possible.

_CRACK! CRACK!_ As the metal expanded and contorted, it began to break.

_Pop- KABAM!_ The armor exploded into pieces, a molten vessel popping along the front chest plate, reducing it to paste.

Milla had forcefed air into the metal, and into the armor itself. _'Works better on living shit, but it's cool I can feed it into like, metal too.'_ If she'd used this on a human, they'd have popped into a rain of gore, like a balloon.

She held up the empty flask of water, and dropped her broom. "Now…"

The air began to glow blue-white. "Gabby!" Milla yelled out. "Grab the thing's spirit! I got the mana!"

"Wha— ah…" Gabriella wasn't sure why, but she did it anyway.

Light-devouring energy filled the air, black intermingling with the blue and white.

"Into this." Milla flailed her arm with the flask a little, to point it out. "See? Follow my motions…"

So, slowly, they fed the being's magic and spirit into the glass flask.

'_I wasn't kiddin' about keepin' it as a pet! I'm gonna find a way yet, even if I gotta learn a thing 'er two 'bout dark shit to do it!'_

_Pop._ After a few minutes of awkward, silent mana mitigation and control, the two girls forced the twin, dark and colorful auras into the glass container.

...Milla furrowed her brows, when its spirit and magic began leaking from the glass rapidly. "Fuckin'— nnn— how about—"

She rotated her left hand around it in a roping motion. Ambiently, she found a sort of holy energy, and after using her own mana to pressure some of the leaking, she managed to create a magic shell around the glass.

'_Guess the Hakurei're good for one thing. This place is like, half as holy as a shrine, so spiritual energy is just seepin' from the floor.'_

"Cool!" Milla would need a new flask to carry around now, but that'd be a small price to pay for science. "Thanks, Gabby!"

Gabriella sighed, before speaking in vague monotone. "...What do you plan on doing with _that?_ It's a _spirit._ An angry, _youkai_ spirit at that."

Milla was smug. "...An' that's where _you_ come in, foxy lady. I'mma be stoppin' by _you_ once 'er twice ta get yer two cents on a few things. Else, uuh… nothin' much!" She fibbed.

'_Not that I got any plans right now, but if I can find out some cool shit from this, you bet your ass I'm ridin' that shit out!'_

Gabriella looked uneasy about the idea. "...If you don't think you'll get in trouble for doing so. I keep telling you, dark magic—"

"Dark, shmark." Milla didn't care. "Magic's magic, ain't nothin' _spooky_ 'bout it, unless you're an idiot and blow your own arm off. Guess it'd be pretty spooky if ya were bad at, y'know, the whole _mana management_ thing."

_Magick Magician Milla!_

"You are an _elementalist."_

Yu was following Milla around, as she browsed the humble library the complex actually had to offer.

'_Let's see~.'_ She was looking for books on spirits. _'No predecessor mage has anything on the spirit, much.'_

"The matters of the spirit pertain not to you." Yu insisted. "It's completely exorbitant study."

'_Oh, yeah. S'been a couple days since I bottled that spirit up.'_

'_No, I ain't becomin' no shitty necromancer, or what-have-ya. But, with the spirit being in grasp… I feel like that'd be so important. They want me to be a weapon? They want me to manipulate mana? A resource like the soul seems so obvious.'_

'_An' I don't mean rippin' out other people's souls raw style. Not sure if that's even possible. But… I wanna see what the soul can actually do.'_

"Listen to me, Milla." Yu, however, was buzzing around her like a gnat. "...Do you not want to work on your fire magic, today? Ice? The wonders of winter are well on their way. Imagine the crystalline beauty. Will you forsake such study, for something so distant to your practice?"

"I'mma— I'mma freeze your nads off, s'what I'm gonna do…!" Milla had to stop herself from laughing mid-sentence…

Yu frowned, and simply stared her down.

'_Aw, man. I feel like none a' the books here're gonna have anything I want. That's the part that sucks about digging through books, 'specially when you didn't hunt for a book 'cause you already knew it had what you wanted.'_

'_For all I know, I could pry these open and find out they're like, lab reports past the first twenty pages, and shit. Not exactly helpful compared to actual documentation of execution procedures, or properties of the soul, or what have you.'_

'_...Then again, I know jack shit about the soul. Nnh.'_

As such, Milla shoveled about six books into a stout wood box she was carrying.

"Then, enlighten me." Yu requested. "Illuminate on what _value_ these studies may accrue."

"Good value." Milla technically didn't go against his wishes.

'_This should be enough, fer now. Also picked up a random ass book 'bout youkai. Maybe has somethin' about these armor dudes.'_

"That isn't an answer. You know it isn't." Yu frowned harder. "You may have freedom to do as you please, but for all of our futures, it doesn't mean you should sit on your hands."

"Oh no~." Milla was getting tired of hearing his voice. "S'a _library,_ dude. Keep it down."

...To her surprise, he heeded the caution, and spoke in hushed tone. "Milla— it would be most pertinent of you to—"

Grinning, Milla hustled off. _'Save your breath, dude.'_

Approaching the check-out, she laid the box of books down on the counter. "Heya. I'm gettin' books."

The fluffy, lavender-haired girl at the counter nodded. "Oka~y…"

"Milla…" Yu would not let this exchange take place without kicking and screaming the entire way. "You are making an error."

"...The fuck'd you just say about my mom." Milla monotoned a non-sequitur.

Yu froze, for some reason. "...I— I'm sorry?"

'_Wow.'_ Milla wasn't even sure what happened herself.

Then, when she turned back to the counter, the lavender-haired cutie there nodded twice, airily. "All se~t. Bring 'em back in a week… or I'll _find_ you…"

Milla was endeared. "Awh? No problem…"

Yu rounded Milla, to speak to the librarian girl. "No— you must revoke these titles from her. She is to—"

"Nnn— no." She shook her head, her bobby, shoulder-length lavender hair swaying.

Yu looked lost. "But— why—"

"No." She shook her head again.

With that, Milla took the book crate, and hustled out of the library.

On these flighty, overcast days, she was filled with a strangely cozy sensation. _'Hehehehe…'_

Yu tailed after her, a finger held up. "Milla…! Milla, wait!"

As she moved out of the hall, and into the common foyer, she kept to the upper catwalk as she beelined to the dormitory.

Mamako and Henry were there, inadvertently blocking the way along the central door, talking to one another.

Instead of even passing them, Milla drifted up onto the walkway's rail, overlooking the center of the room, and leapt down. "Hup…!"

Moments later, she floated back up onto the walkway, past them.

Ahead, Peter beamed, seeing Milla land. "Oh! Hey, Milla!"

Milla weaved past him, uninterested.

Tsubasa and Takako paused, as Milla then had to weave past them, doing a three-sixty spin as she did so. "Ah…"

'_Man, the world really don't want me to get back ta my damn room!'_

Junichi, Toyonobu, Rin, Otsune, Tamiko, Kae— all names of other random people she'd met, who for some reason dotted the path back to her room.

Milla ignored them, coming to the door to the dormitories.

_Shoof._ It slid open, and she began to jog down the hall.

On the right, the windows revealed an overcast, bright white day outside. Fall would be here in just another month.

"Aah. Hey." A blonde-haired man, Ryozo, stood idly in here, and turned to see her jog. He was the fifth ninja who'd come to fetch her from her home, two months ago. "Milla?"

She ignored him, making a straight line to her own door. _'I wanna open up these freakin' books!'_

_Shoof!_ The stone door to her room opened. She pivoted ninety degrees to the right, and slid straight in.

_Thoom._ In the next moment, it slammed shut from above, and the magic on the front flower sigil went out immediately.

...Ryozo stared into space, for a moment. "Huh." Then, he returned to staring out the window.

Yu was still stuck at Mamako, way back in the common foyer, trying to look past her as she spoke to him.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Portan, Parry, Clarke, Jordan. Surnames of magicians the Hakurei used to get their way.

'_Hakurei, Hakurei, Hakurei and Hakurei. S'always that spell, and it's spellin' out 'stupid'!'_

Under the dim, dingy candlelight, Milla sat in her stone room. She had her scrap paper, notebooks and wood furnishings from her home, having nicked them amidst dead silence long ago.

Work, work, work, work. Milla found it easy to continue studying and improving once she'd started, those months ago. Though tonight would be more special than most, it was still another beat on her march into the dark unknown that was her future.

'_It's the walk that makes it so dark. I'm piecin' together spells and knowledge, makin' confident decisions, and… I'm bankin' I'm makin' the right ones. I know how magic works. I know that I don't know how some other things work, too.'_

'_By 'dark', I don't mean y'know, elementally dark. Just… obscure. Empty, kinda dangerous and risky. If I fuck up my studies, I'm no one. Maybe dead, maybe a hoe, maybe just a someone in the farming community. But, my dreams will have faded.'_

The light in the dark was her drive, her heart, and what she felt confident about.

'_I'm confident in weaponizin' the right fuckin' techniques— makin' magic do the shit I want it ta do— and kickin' Kinky's sorry ass!'_

She hadn't spoken to her parents in some time. They were nearly irrelevant.

Milla sat at the desk she'd made for herself, and eagerly glared down at the pages.

'_Just you see, ze!'_

Into the maw of her studies. It must have been night, now.

She'd already thumbed through many books by this point in the evening, sinking her teeth into the knowledge. It was an important distinction or so she felt, that knowledge was simply the recognition of facts and details.

'_Intelligence and wisdom are the knowhow ta use that knowledge.'_

Her thumb rested on the page of this youkai bestiary. It was a sloppy copy of the guide composed by Hieda no Aya, for the Hakurei royalty.

Milla had all but forgotten the dinginess of her surroundings, the remote stone complex, or the dimness of the surrounding woods.

'_Ikiryou.'_ She was reading the documentation of a particular youkai.

'Ikiryou' would be closest translated to English as 'living ghost'. As a youkai, it was almost more a natural phenomena of the spirit. Yet, it held a close tie to individuality.

'_Ikiryou are the souls of still-living people, which have temporarily left their bodies, and move about on their own. They appear like their—... I guess, host, or origin. Sometimes like a wispy ghost that resembles the owner, sometimes… a perfect copy. Indistinguishable from a living person.'_

There are a number of ways for them to appear. Near-death, fainting, intense emotion. Immense lust, love, or hate. Sometimes, by way of a curse.

A curse. A magical affliction, induced by dark or holy art. The holy would call it a blessing or judgment, of course, but the mechanical workings were still the same. Those elements were both the same, despite being so far removed, and opposed.

'_That means…'_

Milla could do it herself. Milla had the power to separate the soul from her own body, to project it, to force an out-of-body experience.

Ikiryou of soldiers was common. Living Hakurei could be subject to this, on the battlefields against the oni and tengu. With significant drive, they could see this.

'_I always thought tales of anger and sadness and love and happiness were all really hokey. A person could just say what they felt was really strong, right? Like, if I wrote a book, and made a power bound by anger, I could just say the character got really mad and it made them have the big dick energy.'_

'_But…'_ She'd realized something, a thing or two about drive and motivation.

'_Real emotion is something that someone perceptive enough can see. Something you can feel. And the emotion itself isn't what fuels power.'_

'_It's what drives someone to do what they could already do.'_

'_The difference between me sitting here, reading this book… and wanting to go suck a dick or play hopscotch or talk with all those prats outside, or something.'_

'_To just follow the elements, 'cause it's easier, and there's no unknown. Ain't ever gonna be a 'water two'.'_

'_But, I won't give up.'_

The Hakurei, and their burden on the village. Kiyoko's decision, and her act for the sake of herself, and her own 'attempt' at defying the odds.

'_Kiyoko modeled an indictment of the Hakurei.'_

_shoof._ Milla slid the youkai bestiary away.

'_The people here. Their inability, their no-can-do attitude… their limited vision. It pisses me off. I'm not them. I won't be complaining about the same problems five years from now. I won't be complaining.'_

'_I'll solve them, or I'll get out, to the point they can't haunt me anymore.'_

Ikiryou were also born of women, who adored a partner with such intensity, that their spirit would haunt the object of their affection. _'They'd do cute things like shove 'em around, or whisper into their ears.'_

'_...Wasn't all romantic, though. The guys who were haunted got woozy, or so they say. Maybe they were just retarded and flipped shit for no reason.'_

The final documented common example of Ikiryou in the book was of those born of rage and vengeance.

'_How boring. Yet…'_ It wasn't hard to see why. In this world, there was a lot to be angry about, and anger was more infectious than anything else. It was fueled by the raw, absolute breakdown of things that were built up— or, to summarize it in one word, entropy. Loss of progress and connections which happened constantly, again and again.

Individuals of brilliance lost to the petty, isolated anger of those who didn't understand. Lost to the anger of society, which held certain expectations and a status quo. Even little grievances could become great without proper distractions, and in a world like this, distractions from what was in one's face was rare.

'_To go over what exactly drives each of these little things is… like, it's hard to the point makin' me think it's best only understood.'_

Milla thought of her parents. Her father would have seen her sold if she wasn't respectful enough, until recently. That would've been the end of her autonomy. Her mother made no attempts to defend her, so it probably would've gone through.

Going to the wrong place in town would be the end of her life as she knew it. Wandering out of the village gets you murdered, be it by Hakurei or youkai. Both ways in which her mind would be lost or stifled.

Any of her endeavors on village fronts with Kiyoko could have seen her a slave or dead. They were risky, but she embraced the danger.

'_...Some would think it presumptuous, to call myself 'brilliant'. But, we're all on the path to brilliance.'_

'_Only some of us get there.'_

'_Only some of us are happy with how the game's meant to be played. Only some of us can understand, there's one way and you just do it. Like how fire magic is fire magic, and you can't rub it all over your skin. You can't mix water and lightning without being careful. Dark and holy are a bitch in general, but especially together.'_

All these little realizations, things intuitive to her, to someone else might be impassable. Someone else might consider it a monolithic, olympic hurdle to hoist over. Even ideas that sound simple on paper, in practice, the margin of error was exponentially greater. Some of these ideas might just _feel_ annoying to someone, leaving them unable to develop.

'_On that note, I guess it'd be easier to say and understand: brilliant individuals are also stopped by themselves. Not that I have anything against how someone happens to turn out 'cause of life, but… inherently, I instinctively look down on them._

'_Especially now. When there's so much to be driven about, and so little to use to hide.'_

'_We're happy to throw away great people of the era, because we never knew they existed. How do you think it happens? It's the little things. It's the lack of a group effort, or common understanding. It's indictments of society. It's faults of the self.'_

'_How are people to be taught by example, when no one knows or understands?'_

Amidst all of this complexity, among the magic and bitter thoughts of reality, happiness was few and far between. It laid at the end of a rainbow, and it was so easy to say 'just ride it!'.

'_But, if there's one thing people quickly understand, it's that merely doing is a challenge.'_

And so, the path to brilliance was simple. It was awarded to the one who did just a little more. To see their passion done, and if not that, to struggle for it to the end. The strength of enduring, of resolve.

'_...Anyway.'_

Milla eyed her pet youkai spirit in its bottle, the ominous cloudy energy swirling around within. It had such a minute motion, that she'd treat it even more precious than glass. If that spirit escaped, it'd be the worst thing ever, she was sure.

There were ceremonial curses, where one would project their Ikiryou— their soul— to hurt or kill their enemies. _Ushi no koku mairi, _and _ichijama_.

'_But, I ain't gonna reference them shitty rituals. Black magic wit' big repercussions. I ain't about being trapped.'_ Milla was scared of being trapped more than anything.

She was sure there was a better way.

_shoof._ She slid another book into comfortable reading view, and flipped it open to a bookmark.

'_Found what I wanted, in the youkai book. Now…'_

She shook away her deviant thoughts, of humanity and society. There would be a time to revel, surely. To do so now was asking for bad luck.

'_Enough galaxy brain time. I need to find a way to project my soul in a way that's useful.'_

It couldn't be emotionally based. As powerful as that'd be, emotions were fickle and unreliable. Even if she used her displeasure, that'd be asking to keep satisfaction away. To work away from her goal, to retain the power to work towards it.

'_...Not sure if that'd be a good or bad thing, but to be honest, I'd like to not particularly risk that.'_

It couldn't be reliant on holy or dark energies. Though they were the easiest tools to use in working with the spirit, they had hitches and faults. Dark magic was infectious, more so than any other element, and holy magic was blinding and law-like.

'_Working with that shit in relation to my own soul? He~ll no!'_

Normally, touching the soul wasn't simple. _'...Which is a good thing, or we would've all killed each other like maniacs.'_

'_But maybe… it can be as simple as sleepwalking, right? Fainting? Even shallower emotions, sometimes? Then…'_

Perhaps she could force the spirit out. Shock her own soul from her body, or use magic to knock it out.

'_...Not in the bad way, though.'_ She wouldn't be _removing_ her own soul entirely, or murdering herself, however. _'It's a living spirit, after all. Some kind of copy using mana? If emotions can draw it out…'_

'_It's something we can already do, or incite. Somehow. Somehow, emotions catalyze a natural reaction, or draw magic in such a way.'_

Then, an idea.

'_I need to piss some people off. I gotta make some laugh, and maybe make someone cry.'_

She'd see how people's emotions change their mana pool, or made their magic flare. That would perhaps give her some clues.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

She had some ideas.

Piss off Peter, please Henry, make Mamako speak of her son— or daughter, she never actually figured out which— and…

That was basically it for the strongest emotions she could think of. _'Anger— real anger, ironic pleasure, and true sadness. No anger like Yu's bitchiness, that's hardly a blip on the radar.'_

It'd been some weeks since she'd tried to shock her body out of herself with sudden sensations. Obviously, that on its own had yet to work. She tried to make herself faint with sleep magic, she tried to blast herself into unconsciousness, she overstimulated herself into saccharine submission…

'_I think that last one may've been onta something, but uhh… dunno if I even— can— iterate that shit.' _Maybe tying masturbation into study was a bad idea. _'Eeh. Yeah, into the shitter wit' that.'_

She was probably on her third month here. Fall had embraced some trees outside, though the pine amidst the deciduous forest was spared of its colors. _'Wonder why that is. Pro'lly magic, or somethin' stupid. Maybe the god who paints leaves just hates paintin' all the little needles of a pine tree._

'_As if a god changes the leaves. Pftah.'_

_Shoof._ Milla stepped out of the dormitory. After so much focused study, even she needed _some_ fresh air to dust the cobwebs off herself. "Hnn~... aa~h." She took a breath of the somewhat book-scented temple air.

She half-expected Yu to yell her ear off about significantly diminishing her council-recommended inheritance of skills.

But, he was busy with something else. On the ground floor of the common foyer, he was there, attending to a guest. Or, guests.

Kiyoko Hakurei stood, tailed by three samurai and two maidens with staves.

...Milla blinked. _'Whah. What tha' fuck.'_

"Yes." Kiyoko agreed to something. "Notify them all. We're only doing this today. Afterward, any who still have yet to make the change, are to report to the Hakurei castle courtyard. After _that_ period, it's up to my mother."

Yu bowed. "I understand, heir. I will do as you ask."

As he marched off, then floated into the air, Kiyoko boredly panned her gaze around.

She ran it over Milla, and Milla expected her to pause, but it didn't seem that Kiyoko did. _'Hmm.'_

_Woosh!_ Leaping over the rail, letting herself drift down to the floor, Milla landed. "Nnh." Then, she walked up to them.

Before she could reach Kiyoko, one of the black-haired maidens got in Milla's way. "Hey."

"...Hey." Milla's reply was blunt.

"Do you know why we're here?" The maiden asked.

Milla considered her philosophy. "In this village? In the middle 'a nowhere? Protectin' absolutely nothing from youkai we could probably just _leave here_, if we all migrated like birds?"

The maiden's ginger but jaded stare conveyed the incorrectness of Milla's direction. "...If you don't, it's 'cause we've gotta change all your surnames."

Milla blinked. "Uh. ...Why?"

"The villagers in the main village have all already made the conversion." The maiden didn't really give a good answer. "We can't just have you all going around with western last names. It doesn't fit."

'_Really.'_ Milla kind of liked the sound of 'De Luca', even if it was a little more fancy than she would've liked. _'I mean, whatever, but…'_

The maiden pulled out a list upon a large scroll she carried. "We have the names of everyone born in the village here, narrowed down to those who reside in this facility. You'll pick your name from the list, and I'll give you a new surname."

Milla was somewhat taken aback by the bluntness of all this. _'...Just—... really? I mean...'_

Looking over, Kiyoko interjected then. "This particular woman may choose her own last name."

...The maiden blinked, and met Kiyoko's gaze. "Um. Wh— why?"

"Does it matter?" Kiyoko raised her brow. "I will recommend she keep it Japanese, to prevent it from remaining western. Otherwise, it will be at her particular discretion. I will find out if I've been disobeyed."

The maiden gave Kiyoko a deep bow. "Ye— yes, heir."

Milla wasn't sure what to think. _'...Guess she's still thinkin' about me after all.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

The event was over as soon as it started.

Milla ultimately picked a name that just sounded nice to say. _'Mawatari.'_

Camilla Mawatari. Otherwise known as Milla Mawatari. _'Camilla De Luca. Camilla Mawatari. Milla Mawatari. Camilla sounded better wit' my previous name, but the name I actually go by sounds better wit' my new one, so whatever.'_

Kiyoko and the other Hakurei were busy with the rest of the complex, and after the half of a day they spent there, they were gone. Milla couldn't get as much as a word in edgewise to Kiyoko.

'_Yet, she still, like—... did a thing, for me. Where do we stand?'_

This didn't lessen Milla's disappointment from that evening they argued. But, it was a slight relief. A breath of the past, and of sanity in her time here.

'_...As fer what 'Mawatari' means, it means horse and ferryboat!'_ Milla really didn't think the meaning out at all. _'Wahoo!'_

The day was already in late evening by the time everyone was mildly available again, which was slightly annoying, but it meant Milla could begin her plan, finally. _'Got a little sidetracked, but that's okay.'_

Peter, Henry, and Mamako were her targets for this involuntary experiment. _'Ought to be interesting inciting shit from them they usually keep away from, too. The opposites of the emotions I got planned for 'em are their natural states, so they'll feel them twice as hard if I do succeed.'_

First would be screwing with Peter, because pissing someone off came naturally to her. _'Where is he, now…?'_

She was looking along the upper level.

He was seated upon a couch, with a book open, taking a quiet moment. Despite his volume and bombasity, he would have studious and thoughtful moments like these. It was just hard to remember them compared to when he chose to make an impression.

'_Like me!'_ Milla grinned. _'...I'm easy to piss off, too! Y'just gotta be a douche to me!'_

Milla came up to where Peter sat.

_WHAP!_ She kicked the book right out of his hands, and it went flying.

"Wh—" His face lit up with surprise. "What— the…!?"

"Whassup, _bitch!?"_ Milla got loud. "The fuck kinda book was that!?"

He looked back up at her, and grinned. "The kind ya don't _kick like a football!"_

"Yeah, nice." Milla nodded.

_thunk._ She kicked him in the balls, and darted back.

_FWOOM!_ His entire body lit up with flame, and he clutched himself where it hurt. _"Rrgh— oouu~!"_

"Nn— hehahaha!" Milla unironically let laughter slip at the way he practically exploded into fire after being hurt. "Holy shit, he went volcanic!"

"_Wh—"_ As he slipped from his chair, onto his knees, body shaking, he tried to question why. _"Why—"_

"Fuck yourself." Milla insisted. "Stupid fuckin' ginger."

_FWRAR._ The flames along his body began to burn brighter, as he glared up, his eyes now blazing orange.

"Fire mages, fucking _suck."_ Milla went further. "Why don'cha eat an ice cream some time, smokey?"

"What— did I _do?"_ He asked of her. "Why're ya—"

"Because I fuckin' hate you." Milla decided to be as mean as possible. "You give us western mages a bad name."

By now, the fire along his body was too bright, and too hot to look at. He fought into standing, glaring ahead.

'_...I see. His mana quickens, reacts faster, and the magic—... it's just—...'_ It was hard for her to describe. _'It's moving in inordinate ways. Like it has a mind of its own, impulsively taking actions and making simple results play out that he'd have to think about otherwise.'_

'_And, it's the part of magic where you gotta think about it and it becomes a procedure— a hassle— that stops people from letting this kinda thing shine. Bad when you're a fire mage, huh.'_

Even now, Peter seemed to be trying to contain himself. He tilted his head back, leering ahead at her. _"...That all you got to say?"_ His voice was distorted by the flames.

Milla thought she had enough data. "Yep."

She began to turn to leave—

He stepped closer, and she felt the heat. Before he could grasp her, she turned around, and slid back to avoid the heat. "Yo, watch out."

"_You— said all that—"_ Peter seethed. _"You hurt me— an' you tell me—"_

"Just sit down." Milla didn't want to deal with this. "I didn't fuckin' mean it."

"_Coward…!"_ He beamed. _"If you didn't mean it—"_

_FWOOM- FWRA~R!_ His body began to expand in size, his flesh and body resembling molten rock.

"_YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE—"_

"_Burrow Laser."_ Milla drew her broom from nothing next to herself, bell-end pointed forward.

_FWICHOO~M!_ A solid, pink-white plasma beam passed through the molten core of Peter. Quickly, his ash and fire began to patch up the hole, albeit the actual process looked shoddy; he was really injured.

_Click._ Milla snapped her offhand's fingers. "Bubble Bomb."

_woosh._ With a spin of her broom, a glowing, red-black shuriken bobbed into the air, contained inside a small bubble. It hovered up, towards the hole in Peter's chest.

_Click._ Milla snapped her fingers again—

_KRAKPOP- SPLAA~SH!_ It exploded into a brilliant shockwave of water, dousing Peter's flames, and getting Milla soaked.

"_Ehr— rrh—"_ Peter rubbed the water from his eyes, and as he staggered back—

_WOOSH._ He saw Milla attempt to land a backward kick across his head. Leaning aside, he weaved under it.

He beamed at Milla's surprised face, ready to tackle her down. _"You're— fhucked— now—"_

Milla leered.

Spinning around using the weight of the kick she missed, she swung her broom back over her own head.

Unnaturally, the broom itself bent ninety degrees under herself, between her legs.

_THUNK- POP!_ The broom itself stretched, and thrust its bell-end into Peter's crotch. Water exploded from a bubble that built between the bristles.

"_Nnn—"_ With that, Peter's flames began to dim. _"Nhuhoh… ghk…"_

_thud._ He collapsed onto the stone floor here, his body quickly returning to normal. Much of the volcanic rock that'd protected him was just charcoal he seemed to have generated, somehow.

_Clink, clink._ Milla left behind a glass bottle full of healing potion for him. "Drink up, smokey."

'_Don't think I've seen him do that big charcoal armor attack before. Impressive fer him.'_ She felt slightly bad about it, but… _'Whatever, s'not like we seriously bonded ever or anything. He'll get over it.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Next, Milla would incite a reaction from Henry. _'This oughta not be too hard, really.'_

Even though the evening was getting late, Henry was outside amongst the darkness and the stars. Onibi— wisp-like youkai— were adrift in the forest air outside the compound's tiered walls.

'_Y'see, there's a wider walkway a floor down. As in, one floor down, the walkway is level with the second floor of the foyer. Except, no one ever uses it. Guess 'cause there's a better view up here.'_

The third floor of the complex was nothing special. It had a room which lead out to the upper balconies, and some strange, wedge-shaped rooms with windows, but otherwise little of value to most people. Yet, everyone went up there to see the sights.

'_Y'get a little stir crazy in a big pile of rocks, lemme tell ya!'_

Along the walking area's edge, Milla came up along the jagged railing where he was.

As he leaned onto one of the square blocks that composed the castle-like rims of this platform, Milla leaned onto the one next to him.

"...Oo— oh." He was surprised. "Where the hell'd _you_ come from."

"Hell." Milla jested, smiling back. "So. What's up?"

"...With me?" He seemed to think it odd she'd bother asking, but he supposed it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. "Mmh. Nothing. As _usual."_

"As usual, ah." Milla knew. Probably too well, all things considered. "Aren't you, like… an ice mage?"

...He slowly looked her over. "I don't _think_ I've ever told you that. But, it's probably fairly obvious, isn't it…"

"Yeah." She noted how he _still_ hadn't changed back his blue hair. "Kinda."

He stared back out into the woods, at the phantasmal lights of the wisps.

'_Wisps are neat.'_ Milla liked how they looked. They weren't friends, though. _'When one gets too close, they swarm ya all at once, and drain your life energy. People've been left as dead husks in the woods before. Animals, too.'_

Henry adjusted his glasses. "So, what brings _you_ out here?"

Milla gave an exaggerated shrug, and a hum. "Mmh. I dunno. Just felt like it."

"...Yeah." He could see that. "I didn't think you'd be one to take walks."

'_I'm up here all the time, I just never feel like talkin' ta you.'_

"You might be surprised." Milla figured.

'_Now… to make him happy real fast. I imagine he's a loner-type.'_

"Hey." Milla wanted to lead in with a little interest, though. "Why ice magic?"

...His stare in return was level. "Why do _you_ care."

'_Now's my chance!'_

Milla held her own arms close, scratched at one of her cheeks, and looked away. "Nn— no reason. I was just curious…"

Henry visibly paused at that. "...We— well, if you _really_ need to know, it's because it was in my family. Big… big surprise there, I'm sure."

"I dunno. I think I kinda wanna learn more about ice." Milla said something she herself would find fairly hokey and fake. "It's just, I dunno, it looks cool, and it's really useful too. You don't hafta put people through much pain, and it's not as deadly as thunder."

At that, Henry smiled. "Is… that so?"

Milla reinforced her own smile, more from amusement and embarrassment than genuineness. "I— I wouldn't say so otherwise."

'_Alright, this is takin' too long. This dude's such a virgin I could probably just…'_

Milla turned to him. With magic, she accented the blush on her cheeks to look realistic. "...He— Henry."

Henry looked at her again. "Wh—"

Milla held her hands to her pants, between her thighs. "Can—... can you be my boyfriend, dude?"

'_Oh, man.'_ She fought a wicked grin, which made her seem actually nervous.

Henry's jaw dropped.

Her eyes scanned the air, watching his mana.

'_Hmm. Maybe this is more hope than happiness, but they're basically the same thing. Hope's just the sharper, situational variant. Well, s'not necessarily happy, but… close enough right now.'_

'_As for what it's doing… unlike the impulsiveness of anger, magic in this case seems to bloom out. Spread. I can feel a cool breeze, which is probably his magic.'_

"Re—" He swallowed. "Really? But—... but, _why?"_

'_Even he knows…!'_

Milla got closer to him. "...I— I mean, yer kinda hot, and like—..." She looked down again.

'_The ground's cooling. Even without spending his mana, it seems to be exerting itself on the world around him.'_

'_This is important, 'cause usually this sorta thing? It's normally a lot less efficient. You gotta try to do it, it doesn't just happen naturally. With this kinda magical autonomy channeled, you could do a lot of things at once, instead of just one.'_

Henry wasn't a total sap, however. "...Pr— prove it."

Milla snorted. "Ha— hah?"

'_If this was an actual proposal, I'd've fuckin' binned ya just now!'_

"Prove that you're not lying." The pit in his heart reflected in the retraction of his mana. "...Nn— not that I don't trust you. But…"

Milla embraced him.

'_God.'_ She had the heavy urge to roll her eyes. _'The things I do for science.'_

"Is—" Milla felt actual shame well in herself. "Is this enough?"

'_At this fuckin' point, I'm gonna project my own soul from how stupid this—'_

That's when Henry rotated the two of them around.

"Aa—" Milla's back met the stone block rail.

Henry's magic aura spiked, cold running up Milla's body. _'Woah—'_

His lips locked against hers.

"Mm—" Milla's eyes were wide, as Henry outright began making out with her. He had one arm wrapped around her back, the other around her head.

'_What—'_ Milla wasn't even sure what was happening anymore. _'Holy fuck, what—'_

She did her best to ignore his aggressive kiss, to read the magic signatures he was giving off. _'Is— is his body just making mana, now!? Hold the fuck up—'_

"Mmh—" He broke the kiss after a moment, as they both needed air. "Aah…"

"Aa—" Milla's mouth was ajar. She felt his cold hand buried in her brown hair. "Fh— fhuckin'—"

Then, immediately, he lunged in for another kiss.

Milla still had her arms held out, fingers twitching. _'His heart's racing, his magic's expanding and filling the air, and—'_

Milla thought to check her own mana, because her own heart was racing from how sudden this all was. _'...I sure as hell ain't just makin' new mana at an insane rate— but—'_

His tongue pierced her lips. _'Woah— fucking— what the fuck…'_

She'd never so much as kissed someone before, so this was even more awkward. _'My mana— it's so hard to read—'_

"Mm— hmm—" He grunted into her mouth, focused as he squeezed onto her.

'_So— what can I do, with this— state I'm in?'_ She wanted to produce _some_ kind of result she could measure and register, since actually feeling at her own mana like this was hard.

_Kri~ng! Kri~ng!_ She created two blades of ice on the path ahead from the floor by holding out an arm.

'_I hardly had ta focus— I just had to think of a spell!'_ Her limbs were shaky, her adrenaline rushing.

He noticed how she'd casted out of panic, and hugged her harder, kissing her deeper.

"Mmh—" Milla began to moan in vague panic, the noise caught by his mouth. "Mmhn~!" She felt his chest pressing against her modest breasts, his legs keeping hers locked in place.

'_I can't let this go too far either! Fuckin'— time out! Time out!'_

She tried to move her feet, but she realized they were frozen in place, as were his. _'Oh, good. When did he— god, damn—'_

_Fwam! Fwam! Fwam!_ Milla fired lasers into the air, which blew small chunks of stone off the nearby architecture.

'_I'm—…'_ This was dangerous. Milla's face was starting to glow bright red.

But, she continued to push him, and eventually managed to break the kiss.

"Fu— aah…!" Milla inhaled. There was a trail of saliva between their lips. "Wh— nnh—..." She wiped her own lips quickly. "Fuck— nnn..."

"Ss— so…" His breath was heavy, his adrenaline running as fast as Milla's. "What— do you wanna do now?"

"I, um…" Milla looked down one of the adjacent paths. "I'm gonna— like… go…"

He blinked, and exhaled. "Aa— okay…"

_Click- click._ Milla tore her ice block-encased feet from the floor, and clumsily parted from him, and the rail.

_Clack- clack- clack- clack!_ Then, she began to run on her blocks, using her pumping adrenaline to just take off.

_BAM! BOOM BAM- BAM!_ As she went, her body randomly cast unstable reactions onto the stonework around herself.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

'_Well. That… happened.'_

Milla sat on a bench in the dormitory hallway, before the window. She didn't think she'd have to _hide_ blush with her magic ever.

'_I— I can't face Mamako lookin' like I almost just got laid. Fuckin'...'_

'_What the fuck was his body doing, even? People burn mana with their emotions, but they don't like— just make it!'_

She shook her head. _'Well… I didn't piss him off at the end, but that's gonna be a headache later. Mmh… even if I don't want to be his girlfriend, I wonder if I could like… set up a friends with benefits sorta relationship there…'_

She shook her head harder. _'I don't have time ta think about that shit right now…! I gotta—'_ She began pressing on her own cheeks, then stretching them. _'Gahahad, damn it!'_

'_Alright. I hate ta do this to myself, but…'_

_fwish._ Standing from the bench, she summoned a big, bouncy mana ball between two arms. Facing an edge of the room, she made a hard expression, and held it up.

_woosh._ She tossed it.

Immediately, it gently rebounded off the corner, into her own face.

_whap._ It forced her to do a whole backflip, her heart jumping as she went flying. _"Whk— hua—"_

_thud._ She ended up on her stomach. "Uhf…"

Soon, she heard a voice. "What… _exactly,_ are you doing." It was only Yu.

'_Oh, thank god. No one to make me dry up like a desert faster than this old fuck.'_

"Mmgh." Milla announced from the floor, before pushing up off of it. "Bein' fookin' stoopid."

...Nodding vaguely, Yu continued down the hallway. "Do make sure you fall asleep _inside_ your room. It is not entirely safe or advised to sleep in public spaces."

'_Yeah, go beat yourself off.'_

Getting off the floor, Milla dusted herself off. _'Alright, I think that's the last of the nervous energy.'_

'_The way my magic was just firin' the fuck off back there, though… that gives me some good ideas. Man, so much about magic is just… moving mana in different ways. Fuckin' energy.'_

When she was panicked and flustered, her magic was easily called and practically fired itself off when she completely lost focus. _'Or rather, I was so excited I just fuckin' let loose.'_

'_It was easier to cast, 'cause I was excited. I mean, I was also lowkey horny, but… hmm~. Maybe there's a way for me to make spells happen intuitively, an' faster. Although, announcin' a spell name's half the fun.'_

'_I'll think on that later.'_

She had to focus on having this sappy discussion with Mamako. _'Man, that threw off my entire groove. I was gonna be a lowkey asshole to everyone today, but then I had ta get horny. Maybe she'll make herself sad with the right prodding. _

'_On the upside, the only person who'll want me dead after this is Peter. Ooh, maybe I can get Henry and Peter to duke it out! The classic battle: fire versus ice! Awh, shit, hell yeah. Alright, that's my next plan after, uh… damn, I got a lotta shit to do.'_

'_Well, whatever. Let's do this.'_

She stepped up to Mamako's door.

..._WHABAM!_ A big rock came from over Milla's shoulder and rammed against the door. _'Rappin' my knuckles on a giant stone slab ain't gonna do shit. Gotta use force, ze.'_

After a short delay, it lit up and slid open. "Hm…? Oh." Mamako met Milla's gaze. "Hey, Milla."

"Yo." Milla gave her a wave. "I came ta hang out, ze."

'_I've actually ended up in here a couple times before. Mostly on her idea, 'cause she's that kinda hospitable person. We'd have some tea and snacks, and chat.'_

"So late?" Mamako questioned. "Not that I mind, of course."

"Aah. Y'know. Long day." Milla supposed that was an understatement.

'_Saw Kinky again, almost got laid. Not sure what to consider that Peter-related horseshit.'_

"...And you'd choose to relax here?" Mamako had a big smile, as she turned inside, gesturing for Milla to follow. "I'm flattered."

"Ya gimme goodies." Milla reasoned. "I'm like a cat, ze. Y'keep me fed, an' I keep comin' back!"

Mamako snorted. "Maybe I ought to keep you as a pet, then."

"Now that's a little kinky, even fer me!" Milla wasn't in the mood to think of lewd tropes.

"Nnn." Mamako let out a chuckle of a sort. "So… what is it you wanted to talk about? Let me get the tea…"

'_...Findin' a way to segue into this is gonna be hard. We gotta start talkin' about her kid, somehow. Actually.'_

"You ever think about doin' mommy roleplay?" Milla asked an incredibly outlandish question

...Smiling ruefully, Mamako gave her a worried look.

"Bad question, I guess…!" Milla remarked, knowing exactly how cursed it was.

"To be honest, _no,_ I _haven't."_ Mamako assured Miilla. "My youth's been over for a long time. You're still young, and can… _handle_ fooling around, I suppose."

'_...Ya think, huh.'_ Milla remembered earlier, again.

"Would you have done that if you were younger?" Milla thought she saw a hole in Mamako's logic…

...Mamako exhaled. "Asking the hard ones, today. Well… once or twice, _maybe."_

'_Oh! No shit?'_

"That was before I met my husband." Mamako moved for the table in the room's center.

Milla had already seated there, on impulse. Mamako laid down the tea cups, and the kettle. A magic, hot cylinder of sorts upon the table was heating the kettle.

"...Ah." Milla saw her ticket. "He around anywhere now?"

"...No."

Then, nothing. Not necessarily Milla's ticket after all. _'She's good at restraining her emotions, though.'_

"Ah." Milla wondered…

'_Alright, strategy time. If I'm too forward, she'll see through me like a pane a' glass.'_

"Wait. I've got a real question, actually." Milla inadvertently confessed the last one wasn't a real one. "What's it like, bein' a mom?"

Mamako took pause, at that. "...Well. It's—... it's like nothing else. You might not know anything of the joys of love, any time soon, but…"

Milla had a slanted smile. "Might be sooner than ya think, actually…"

At this notion, Mamako actually froze. "Re—... really? Love, _you?_ Nn— not to sound judgmental, but… I— I never took you for a people person!"

"Well, normally I'm _not,_ but…" Milla shook her head. "I— I mean, I _did_ meet this guy…"

"Wo~w!" Mamako was somehow really excited. "That's great! Um… how long have you known each other?"

'_Uuh. Ehehe.'_

"A day." Milla grinned big.

Mamako slouched her shoulders. "...Well, the fact you've _started_ a relationship is quite good. All your complaining about the hardships of life, and the fleetingness of happiness… with a good lover and partner, it'd really help you forget all of it."

'_I mean, I'm not really lookin' to totally forget my problems. But, stress relief's stress relief…'_

'_Also… I— I dunno, while love would probably take up a lot of time, I feel like the same problems that affect my own safety would kinda affect… my partner's, y'know?'_

'_So, uh…'_

"I mean, a little." Milla admitted. "I'd still be mad about what I'm mad about. But, it would… I dunno."

'_I'm supposed t'be makin' her sad, not gettin' my brain poked…!'_

"Anyway!" Milla decided to just fold. "...I'm gonna be real wit'cha."

"Oh?" Mamako blinked.

"I wanna make someone sad." Milla decided to just lay out everything. "I've been studying the way mana reacts ta emotions. I feel like I'm on the verge of a big breakthrough. But, I gotta see an emotion that's sad, and how one's energy works with it."

Mamako smiled. "So, you came to me."

Milla clicked her tongue. "Well. I wasn't gonna _say_ anything, but uh—"

"Also... _that's_ what happened to Peter earlier today, isn't it?" Mamako pouted. "If that was you, Milla, you really ought to go apologize."

"Aaeh." Milla scratched the back of her own head. "Ye— yeah, sure."

'_Probably not happening. Not like Peter's gonna do shit about it. Dude couldn't hurt a fly.'_

"In any case," Mamako looked down at the warming tea kettle, "if you _really_ are desperate to see that emotion… I suppose I could help you. But, it's not something so easily called on command. Even if I don't mind reminiscing… I hope you realize, I'm showing it _to_ you. It's not pleasant."

Milla was slightly intimidated by the way she hyped it up. "I mean, I'm no stranger to cryin' shit out myself. So, I know it's ugly. I just gotta see how it forces magic to react."

'_I feel like I'm so close to something…'_

...Mamako nodded. "I'm glad you were honest with me."

'_We'll see.'_ If it made Mamako restrain herself, then this would be overall a waste of Milla's time.

_Click._ Mamako claimed the tea kettle, and began to pour some for each of them. Sugar was floated over from parts unknown, and laid down between the two.

"So." Mamako began to talk, as she poured the tea. "Let's talk about the death of my son. It'll be more like I'm _telling _you about it, actually. I do know you've been curious."

Milla poured a little sugar into her tea, and brought it up, ready to drink up for this story. _'Oh, boy.'_

"I loved my husband, and I loved him." Mamako began. "We used to have a household on the road before the Hakurei castle. Just across from the courtyard, actually.

"It was a normal day, like any other.

"It was snowing, a few winters ago. Our road-front home faced the crowds of people who came and went every day. My husband was a carpenter, but we were wealthy, which was how we lived in such a bright place.

"We lived there because it seemed to be the least likely to be a target, in the event of a paradigm shift. We were among the other wealthy, but we were lowly enough to be among those who contributed.

"At the same time, we were a unique sight. Wealthy carpenters, merchants? They were a strange being between unspeakable and influential, here in Japan."

Milla took a deep sip of her tea. It had that herbal hue to its flavor; that vague, bitter but unspeakably hearty feeling that coated the back of her throat.

Mamako continued. "The first place the Hakurei decided to clean of unnecessary village influence was their main road.

"Which, coincidentally, was where we lived." Mamako searched the floor near the table they sat at.

"The Hakurei samurai entered our home, on the midst of that day. As it was main street, we were simply asked to move out. That day, before the next morning. To relinquish all our property and wealth, and either beg for a home on the village's west fringes, or live under servitude to a Hakurei household elsewhere.

"In truth, we should have accepted. I should have asked them to accept." Mamako rued her past. "But, I wasn't sure if we'd be safe. My husband and son were angry at the Hakurei.

"We spoke back. We called this unreasonable, and supposed other westerners— and indinginous villagers— who resided the core village wouldn't stand for this. My son said— he asked if the other villagers supported this."

Mamako stared at Milla, levelling her gaze again.

"They wouldn't put up with that." Mamako's gaze was dull. "They killed him. They killed my husband. I was to be sold afterward, supposedly on political terms as I'd technically became Hakurei property. But…"

'_She was gonna be someone's mistress. I mean, as mom-like as she is, she'd probably live a good life. Wonder how much he'd wanna fuck her, though. Men are kinda suckers for mommy-types.'_

_zap- zap, zap._ Mamako's arms crackled with a flourish of electricity.

"I killed them back, instead." Mamako confessed. "Six Hakurei samurai, dead in an instant. Back at the village, I'm sure I'm wanted to this day."

She smiled. "But, all of that, that sudden, instant moment, the moment where my love ended, and my perfect life came to an end… that moment itself was shallow. The violence just was what it was."

"It was shallow compared to what came after. When it set in, that I'd never see my son again. My husband.

"Over something so momentary, so petty. I wanted to kill everything. I wanted to kill myself. I wanted an escape, from the pain. Anything. My life was over, so I was free to do anything.

"Yet…"

She gave the ceiling a look. "I guess, it really didn't matter, after all. Here I am, carrying my pain. Worthless to the complex. Past my prime, and unable to love anymore."

She shut her eyes. "I— don't know why I'm still alive anymore."

She had walked some of the same path Milla had. Reading notes, searching for vengeance amongst the angry scribbles, scrawlings and whispers of the past. Reminded by the stupidity, by the human failure.

But, unlike Milla, Mamako was older. Far older. She'd loved and lost. Her younger life was blissfully ignorant of the harsh realities she knew now. She inadvertently had avoided them; and she had gracefully, easily blew past them for the longest time, careless and happy.

In the time she was hidden from the cruelty, Milla embraced and scorned it at the same time.

'_She was blindsided. Me? I'd be expecting something so rotten from the get-go. I'm expecting it right now, at almost any time. For me, the blow'd be soft, and would turn to anger. Maybe not even happen to begin with, 'cause my M.O. is avoiding stupid shit.'_

'_Mamako, though? Mmh. Plain unlucky. She wasn't prepared.'_

'_It kinda sucks. That life can getcha like that, I mean. An' no one will sympathize with ya when it first happens to you, 'cause that's just life, innit? S'just your turn to learn.'_

'_No amount of me cursin' the Hakurei for bein' stupid— again— or pattin' her back over something she's well-internalized now is gonna do her any good.'_

When one wasn't prepared for this tragedy, didn't ever know it, wasn't guarded, and knew not of its cruel commonality in society…

'_This happens. Shit happens.'_

'_The most respectful I can be right now… is to just say nothin'. It's not that I don't feel anything to the sentiment, but… I don't have time to feel bad about a problem like this.'_

Milla herself couldn't be remarkably moved; it wasn't so amazing so as to break her own mental and social guard. This was Mamako's problem, and her past. But…

Something about seeing another human being cry could awaken something instinctual in nearly anyone. _'It doesn't feel good.'_

Mamako was struggling to pull herself together. "Those—... _monsters…"_

But, she still tried to keep it contained. _'Not sure why, or how long she plans to keep it contained for.'_

Mamako's magic felt like something Milla had only felt in herself. Sharp, concise, held with an absolute, adrenaline-honed precision.

Her whole body was tense, as if she was fighting herself. Electricity coiled around her limbs. Her mind raced over the thoughts again and again— her son, her husband, and the Hakurei. Her now waste of a life, and the dismal descent that came with the thought process induced by thinking of herself as such things.

Mamako's mind repeatedly ran over terms she'd heard before. 'Damaged goods'. 'Sad', and 'idle'. Awaiting her turn to join her family in the afterlife. These were the ideas that pumped in the back of her aching head.

'_...I see what she means. It almost seems silly, how fast she got sad just recounting the story. The story itself? Sounds typical, sounds like something you'd expect. It's whatever, really.'_

'_What isn't whatever? Watching her cry. Watchin' her limbs shake with anger, her hands feel at her aching head, and her mana…'_

'_Even if I didn't feel anything about hearin' her family die, or even followin' her thoughts… seeing her react is just, damn. It's somethin' you can feel in your heart. An' when you think back over what lead to this, you start to resonate.'_

'_An' that's so funny, 'cause if she told me all this without her crying herself, I pro'lly would not have given a single fuck.'_

Sadness was a similar excitement to hope, happiness or arousal. But, it wasn't as clumsy. It was similar to anger, but not as unleashing, or overwhelming. _'Or as clumsy, either!'_

It was a driven potential, a constantly sharpening blade. Something that could be shaped into anger, or transfused into happy appreciation for what one used to have and what one does have.

But… _'No, that ain't exactly it. Anger's also kinda like that.'_

Yet, anger burned out quickly. It was a flash in the pan, a loud gunshot, a solar flare. It went out in an instant, expending all its mana, albeit with impossible force. It'd be the ultimate emotion, if humans didn't run out of energy.

Arousal, happiness, and hope were wild and free, but lacked tact. They energized, but they also grew stale. As situations changed, they grew weaker, and no matter what, even when exercised by the greatest sages, they eventually crumpled to something worse. For how long, it depended, as nothing reigned forever.

Angst, however, was the follow up to an end. Deep-running deficiencies of the heart which fueled recurring, explosive anger and sadness. But, it stifled true utilization of anger, and it stifled happiness from reigning as long as it could.

'_Sadness can fuel anger and happiness, but if it's from somethin' you can't fix… then it takes a lotta time for you to learn how to get around it.' _

''_Cause when the other emotions are gone… it's always gonna be there.'_

Milla realized how sad life made her herself, sometimes. Not that she had a lot of time to _be_ sad, but as a teenager, dipping into an extreme low was sometimes easy.

'_Always.'_

'_...Therefore, the best way to live life would be to gracefully weave through the emotions you do experience!'_ Milla had _some_ sort of breakthrough. _'Wa— wait, that ain't quite what I was researching, was it…'_

Milla spoke up. "Uuh. Mama— ko. Why do ya let it get you down? An' _keep_ you down?"

Mamako met Milla's plain stare, eyes watery. "Wh—...?"

"What's it matter, now?"

...Mamako almost lashed out at her, but withheld her anger to just a glare, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You wouldn't understand. I—... I can't forget them. I _loved them."_

Milla remembered Kiyoko's decision, the one that'd pissed her off, before all of this magical complex business.

'_I can't forget that. 'Cause Kiyoko was someone with so much potential, but she's just—...'_

The way Mamako's magic prepared itself and empowered itself when she was sad. The way Peter's became overwhelming when he was pissed off, and the way her own became wily and wild when she was wound up.

Milla held her mouth ajar.

'_I have to try something.'_

Milla downed her tea. "Mmgh—" Then, she began to stand, setting the cup back down.

"Mm— Mamako." Milla saw something, in her imagination. "Sorry, but— I got somethin' I wanna test out. I'll be back soon, I think. Thanks for your help."

Mamako blinked in slight confusion. "Oo— oh, I— I didn't mean to—"

"Ya didn't _spook me."_ Milla clarified. "You couldn't. 'Specially now. I got somethin' I gotta take care of."

Mamako wasn't sure what to make of that.

Milla hustled to the room's door, slid it open with her magic, and sprinted out, on the way to her own room.

_Magick Magician Milla!_

The candles were lit, hung all around the room.

Milla stood amidst wildly strewn scraps of notebook paper. Her desk sat as a mess with a burnt-out candle atop it, books splayed all over it. The chair was on its back, away from it.

She ran her gaze over the messy mattress, and across the paper-splattered floor.

'_Anger, hope, angst, arousal, happiness, sorrow, despair, excitement…'_

Neon energy ran across her limbs. Without channeling any emotion, she began to emulate the patterns she saw.

Overwhelming magic. Pummelling magic. Unleashing magic.

'_Bind the body to the open mind…'_

The candles flickered, touched by an unseen power. Milla felt her body churn, her limbs shaky as she focused herself.

Her mana spread, encapsulating the whole room. Pages kicked around once more, as they had been for the past hour or two.

Her heart thumped from the power, her body giving everything to this sheer feeling.

Precise, spreading magic which overwhelmed everything. By casting all her mana from her form, with the right focus, she could—…

'_Black. A black, wintry evening night, where nothin's goin' on.'_

'_But your mind's racing. It feels so good out, looks so damn serene out… you imagine adventures with people you wanna know, explorin' the depths of places you think're interesting. The edges of that dark night, which make no sense to explore otherwise.'_

'_Explorin' for the sake of it. Exploring to get yer rocks off. Exploring because you feel like something fucking amazing is at the end of it. Even if it was only you.'_

'_There's so much you can potentially think of, but reality binds. It ties me down, removes the mystic from the world around me.'_

'_But tonight, I'm gonna explore. From the perilous peaks of Youkai Mountain— to the rim of the sky. The hell down under the caves and rocks, and the sensation-flooding megastructures that surely lie somewhere I don't know.'_

'_I wanna be part of all that fantasy. I wanna fuckin' go there! Where? All of it! I'll see it all!'_

'_I dare to dream again!'_

_FWASH!_ A white orb shot from her chest. "Kaa— aa—" She gasped messily.

Then, it was there. With a flourish of light and shade, it actualized.

Milla turned to face herself. This Milla was ethereal at first, white and shimmering.

The two stared at one another. Candles blew out, and a whirlwind of pages billowed around the two.

After some seconds, Milla saw it. A beautiful young woman, with a petite chest, long green hair, and a blue robe.

Both of them leered, eyes widening from sheer hype.

"_Eee~hehehahaha~!"_ They reeled back, staff and broom summoned, and giggled mercilessly into the air together.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

"_Milla Mawatari."_

Yu stood across from Milla, in the complex's evaluation room once more.

Milla stood across him, with messy posture, staring lazily into the air.

"I have summoned you here, because I have decided to re-evaluate the worth of your studies, as has the Hakurei council."

Milla leaned her whole body to the other side, taking in the ceiling and upper walling around the room. _'Shame we can't loiter in here. It's kinda cool looking. All this marble.'_

"To our knowledge, you have spent the past few weeks doing nothing but killing time and neglecting the path and aid we've laid out for you."

'_Wonder what that fuckin' kid Henry's up to right now…'_

"As such, I have called an evaluation into question. To measure the _true_ progress you have made."

Yu reached along his waist, and drew a katana.

"I will be much more fierce than the last time we sparred." Yu provided. "If you've truly followed our course's guidance, you will best me with moderate effort. If you haven't, then your defeat will be obvious."

'_I ought to learn how ta bake bread, from Mamako. If she doesn't know, I'd fuckin'—... go play a fiddle, or somethin'. 'Cause there's no way she don't!'_

"Are you listening to me?"

"Mmh?" Milla stopped staring at the ceiling.

...Yu's glare strengthened, and he raised his blade. "If you show signs of not taking this seriously, I _will_ seriously injure you. Such that you will understand how _serious_ this is. Do you _understand?"_

Milla smiled. "Oh? So, I can go all-out too, then?"

Yu blinked twice. "...I— thought that would be understood too, yes. Do _not_ hold back."

They stared one another down.

_Fwish._ Yu's katana lit up golden. He jolted from where he stood on the floor, sliding straight at her with intense speed.

Milla seemed to lurch forward, and threw a left hook at nothing.

_WHAM!_ Yu was sent twirling, the fist somehow impacting the right of his jaw.

After one rotation, he saw Milla suddenly directly before himself with his wide eyes—

_WHAM!_ Her right first met the left of his jaw. "Ngh— hrh…" He stumbled back, eyes wide. In another moment, the Milla he saw was out of sight, having blurred out of existence.

_BAM- BOOM- BAM!_ To his right, an ethereal, white Milla ran across the room. Unstable, neon white magic orbs splashed out from her bounding steps, taking to the air—

"_Paradox Blade!"_

"_Unstable Reaction!"_

"_Hee~hehehe!"_

Yu whipped around—

_SWISH!_ A white, ethereal Milla cast her broom at him. Like a blade, it cut the front of his kimono-gi hybrid open, marking a red slash across his chest.

_KABOOM!_ One of the neon white orbs that was bouncing around the room came down at his legs from an awkward angle, blowing him off his feet. _"Rrh— aa—"_

_SHUNK!_ In the air over him, one of the translucent Milla clones plunged her broom-blade unevenly into his chest as he ascended.

_BOOMBAMBOOMBOOM!_ The room was quickly flooding with huge, shimmering, unstable orbs.

The barrier protecting the Hakurei council shimmered, the orbs pounding against it, obscuring their vision. Some of them stood, looking around in vague alarm.

Somehow, despite everything, Yu flipped into landing on his legs—

"_Ngh— hhn…!" _Bleeding openly, Yu steeled his gaze on landing, reeling back his blade, eyes shooting around, trying to identify threats—

_SWOOSHWOOSHWOOSH!_ Yu spun around, flailing his blade around. _"Hrrgh…!"_

He'd cut through various orbs, blowing them up safely, and through some white Milla clones, which phased out as his blade passed through, magic dispelled.

He looked around, then up.

The real Milla was standing on the ceiling. _"One-woman Army!"_ She spun on a heel against the ceiling's marble.

_Fwi~sh!_ She unleashed an entire bag of marbles onto the floor below. They all shimmered, gold yet light-devouring, raining down on him.

Then, the moment they all met the floor, they activated.

It was a deafening roar, each orb exploding out into a neon-white silhouette of Milla, swinging a broom or poking it forward.

_SHINK- SHUNK- SHUNK- CRACK- SHINK!_ Yu was filled with ethereal blades. _"Haa— aa…"_

_Fwoash!_ Emergency healing magic flourished up his form, saving him from death by pincushion.

_THUD!_ Milla landed hard on her legs before him.

"_Nova Crash."_ She aimed the bell-end of her broom forward.

_bwoop._ A single bubble popped out, a teal-red shuriken spinning inside, a shifting gradient of colors lighting up the room.

Yu dialed back from it, looking over at the council, his eyes wide—

_KABOOM!_ The bubble exploded, as did the shuriken.

It became a revolving, circular ring of magical rockets which spun around, expanding to include his figure.

_WHABOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!_ He was clipped by the ten rockets, which sped up blindingly fast to pile into his torso—

_CRACK!_ Milla was behind him to meet him with her broom before he could be launched.

_FWOASH! FWOASH!_ Two healing pulses exploded up his form, to keep the rockets and the resulting broom strike from reducing him to a shower of gore.

He landed on his feet. "Haa—"

_CRA- CRACK!_ A broom and a staff met either end of his face, squishing his cheeks. Milla had replicated the team attack she used to do with Kiyoko, using a different Milla clone to help; her green-blue mage half.

The real Milla flipped back, and aimed the bell-end of her broom forward as she righted.

"_Azure Wind!"_ The broom spun wildly between her hands, abrading her own skin until it was bloody.

_WOO~SH!_ A wet, messy tornado spun up horizontally, out of the broom's tip, forming a shaft that blew into Yu's chest.

_KRACK- SPLACK- SPLACK- SPLACK!_ His ribcage exploded outward in a cone. Globs of water shot everywhere, soaking the whole room and mixing with rich streaks of red.

He was embedded partially into a marble pillar behind himself, which crunched with the force he met it.

In his vision ahead, a blue-green Milla held a staff up. _"Electrolyzer."_

_ZAZAZAP!_ That copy was electrocuted into nothing, becoming a puff of air as the wet, electric magic destroyed her own body.

_KRAKA- KABOO~M!_ A barrier erected above Yu, to save his life. A thunder bolt infused with wet magic had struck it, with such intensity that it left a crack in the barrier.

As his body painfully regenerated, magic keeping him on life support, Yu stared ahead with abject fear, his face beaming in incredulity. He was somewhere beyond pain, slipping away from the impossible rush of sensations; which too were mostly pain-related.

Milla had his katana, which he'd left on the floor. _"Rampage Bla~de!"_

_FWRA~R!_ It lit up with overwhelming, molten flame, the katana becoming ash black inside the inferno that enveloped it.

Takako rushed in, arms held out._ "Stop! That's—"_

Milla swung the blade out.

_KRABOOM- KAKLACK!_ Takako's breasts were blown from her chest.

The plain, black-haired Hakurei man was behind her. _"Sleepaga—"_ He attempted to cast a prefabricated, yet potent sleep spell—

A copy of Milla backflipped from her form, and spun to whip the flat of its rampage blade across his body.

_BABOOM!_ The flat of the blade met him so hard he was sent flying meters across the room.

_Click._ Milla snapped her fingers. Her sword slipped from her grasp, and into the air. _"Oops!"_ She beamed, rapping her knuckles on her own head.

In the air, the blue-green reflection of herself shot into the air, double-jumping with the aid of the wind, spinning around. _"He~yeah!"_

_CLICK._ The top of her shoe met the hilt of the rampage blade the original Milla had released.

It roared straight down for Yu's chest. As it flew, the fire left its form, the blade's metal charred black

_SHINK!_ It struck his chest, breaching the absent ribs and piercing inner organs. It was a good quarter meter shy of his heart. "Kha—" He coughed out a cone of blood regardless.

The green-blue form of Milla was in his face, smiling. "Aww~h? I thought ya weren't gonna _hold back."_

_SHUNK._ She ripped the katana from his chest, arcing it so it'd be as painful as possible, sundering flesh and making a unique wound on the way out.

"_Rrgh—" _He roared. She somehow spiked him from his oncoming pain-coma, the new sensation a hellish revelation of pain. _"Aaa~gh!"_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

"Um…" Tsubasa looked nervous.

Before her, Yu, Takako, and the the plain-haired director— named Yoshifumi—all sat in varying degrees of serious injury.

Takako shook, both from the aftershocks of magic being used to restore her flesh— and breasts— and also fear from the suddenness and nearness of death. Her chest was bound by a cast.

Yu was being levitated off the floor, a fluffy Hakurei girl wrapping all of his body with white wrappings. His gaze looked dull, but he was alive, somehow.

Yoshifumi got off the best, having only received some bruising from being launched. He stared up at Tsubasa with about the same look of dead in his eyes as he always did.

Next to them, Milla sat there, gazing up at the ceiling again.

"I— I don't know what to say." Tsubasa admitted. "...Um. Milla?"

"Mmh." Milla wanted to go do something else. She'd already gotten her high.

"You, um… _maybe, actually_ could have gone softer." Tsubasa decided.

"You asked for a weapon." Milla contested. "You wanted to see how well it shot. So, you shot yourselves in the leg with it. How'd it feel?"

Tsubasa still wasn't sure what to say. None of the Hakurei on the floor had an immediate retort.

"Y'can take all your fuckin' forced studies and shove it up your ass." Milla declared.

Yoshifumi panned his gaze to her. "Remember… that, if we ever determine you a threat—"

"Yoshi." Tsubasa interrupted him. "Please. Do you _have_ to insist on it? Are you a child? I'm sure she already _knows."_

...Yoshifumi's mouth went ajar, and somehow, his already dull gaze became more crestfallen.

"If anything, we should be treating her with kindness." Tsubasa proposed.

"You— _idiot."_ Takako didn't see the logic. "Why should—"

"Do you _want_ her to blow your boobs off again?" Tsubasa countered. "Do you _really_ wanna chance getting the upper edge, again? The only reason she _did_ that, was because we were trying to strong arm her development. Obviously, we can't just _do that._ She's—... too developed, I guess. Stronger than us."

"Stronger than _us?"_ Yoshifumi actually looked offended, now. "But we could—"

"You're a— you're a _child,_ Yoshi." Tsubasa countered. "You're supposed to be a _higher rank than me._ Please— _think,_ and realize that _maybe,_ the only way to do this _isn't by showing force._ Or showing the _capacity_ for force. Or how hard you swing a sword, or _whatever."_

...Yoshifumi exhaled, and began to stand. "Fuck this."

"Hah?" Tsubasa let out a single laugh. "Where are you going?"

He stomped off without words.

Tsubasa nodded plainly. Then, she sighed.

'_...Hmm.'_ Milla considered that. _'Really is more ta life than force.'_

As time went on, she was dulled to the prospect of getting vengeance for Kiyoko's bad decision, those months ago.

'_I'm sure she's realized it herself. I'm sure she's working like I am. I'll be fucking disappointed, if I'm the one that kicks her ass, after all of this. I can't be the only one that puts in all the effort.'_

"Well…" Tsubasa ran her gaze over Milla. "What, um… do you have any words? For the end of this… consultation? Whatever this was?"

Milla stood. Taking in a breath of fresh air, she nodded.

"Yeah." She pointed her fingers out at everyone. "I think _you…_ all 'oughta get laid."

With that, Milla began to leave.

"Wh—..." Tsubasa's mouth hung open.

'_One a' these days, me and Kinky're gonna be rollin' again. An' she's gonna rue the day she let me down, ze!'_

'_An' no one in this damn village is gonna stop us!'_

Milla pushed open the double-doors into the hallway outside the trial room. Her exit was framed by puddles, surging electric amidst the craters in the floor, and broken, crumbling scorched marble caught between glacial spires.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Winter was well on its way. The cold and the overcast filled Milla with life. _'Mmm~...'_

Windows were installed in the common foyer. They were at Milla's particular insistence; the Hakurei spoke out against it, insisting it was a security hazard, but they couldn't stop her from blowing holes in the architecture, and having some of the complex-goers quietly make the glass for it.

She sat with her shoes up on a coffee table, upon a couch. Next to her, Mamako quietly read a book.

'_Place feels a whole lot more homey, when it feels like I run it.'_

No more was she going to be pestered about her studies, or on what she could or couldn't do. So far, she was out of the magic compound Hakurei's control.

For the most part.

'_The village'd still basically become my enemy if I did anything stupid there. Mmh.'_

For the satisfaction of becoming something to be feared in the complex, she wasn't entirely pleased yet. _'The village is still a goal far beyond realistic. Those Hakurei, which oppose the greater youkai scale… to them, I'd not even be a blip on the radar. But—...'_

She wondered.

'_Since I can transfer consciousness to my soul clones… maybe…'_

Maybe she could send them to wander the Hakurei castle. Attempt break-ins, and when she was caught, she'd just have her clone 'kill' itself, or dispel.

'_Heh. Yeah. That sounds like a plan. Damn… if I was this powerful back when me and Kinky ran around, I could turn whole damn buildings on their ear.'_

'_Kiyoko herself wouldn't've been a match for me.'_

Now? Milla had no idea.

'_...Actually, I wonder how clone shit would work long-distance. I didn't even think about that.'_ Another thread of experimentation, she supposed. _'Might be slightly more limiting than I thought. Mmh, I can deal.'_

'_Maybe actual emotional charge would help fuel it. I mean— I talked big game about achieving things without the help of emotions, 'cause they're inherent, but emotions would really help focus for straining shit, maybe. A good trainin' wheel, maybe.'_

"Mmm~." Milla stretched…

She scanned the people around the quiet foyer, today.

She met Henry's gaze. Henry had taken a look at her from an adjacent portion of the upper foyer.

'_Oh, right. That loose end. Oh boy.'_

Since their gazes had met, Henry moved around the railing, browsing towards her.

"...So." Quickly, he was there, standing before the couch she lounged at.

"Yo." Milla eventually had to look up at him. "...Don't just stand there like a lump. C'mon." She patted the seat next to herself, to the left.

He sat next to her. "...Is this how having a girlfriend is supposed to feel?"

"Pro'lly not!" Milla grinned. "Pro'lly more lovey-dovey."

She took her shoes off the table, and turned towards him. "Alright, I'll level wit'cha. I dunno 'bout a _relationship._ I hardly know yer ass. Bu~t…" She slowly brushed her brown hair aside, parting her bangs from her face. "Yer a damn good kisser, I'll give ya that."

Mamako was looking at them, her stare examining.

"Is… that so?" Henry adjusted his glasses. "What _possessed_ you to come up to me, like that? Not— that I'm complaining, just—"

"Well!" Milla decided to be forthright now. "...I _was_ doin' a study on how emotions affect magic! So I wanted ta measure how _you_ felt, gettin' a proposition."

...He tilted his head back. "Oo— oh. So…"

"An' then you went up and— _made out_ wit' me." Milla looked along herself, before meeting his stare again. "I'm just gonna say… we could _do that again_, maybe. Now that I ain't busy, 'er anything."

'_I mean… it'd be a pretty apt celebration, wouldn't it!? Yeah!'_

"Well…" Henry's eyes met the table for a moment, before tracing up her form. "How about right now?"

Milla blinked. "Ju— just right, like—"

His arms lunged to embrace her.

Pulling her onto his lap, he kissed her.

'_Right now, huh…'_

Adjusting herself, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, and hugged back. "Mm— nnh—..."

The force of his arms on her back, and in her hair again, began to ignite her ignite her adrenaline.

'_It's— really embarrassing, but—'_

...Mamako placed a bookmark in her book, and sat it aside. "It's probably cliche to say, but you two really _ought _to share a room."

Henry and Milla quickly looked over at her.

"...Pr— probably." Milla confessed. She looked Henry in his blue eyes, and spoke quietly. "Carry me ta yer room…"

Still embracing her tightly, he stood. "Oo— ooh." She beamed, as he took off with her still wrapped around him. "Hehehehe…"


	4. In the Halls of the Hakurei Heir

Kiyoko Hakurei stood atop one of the strange, boxy spires of the Hakurei's shrine-styled castle. At least, that's how Kiyoko always thought of it. It was a similar aesthetic to a shrine, even if that's not exactly what it was.

It was evening, and she overlooked the lights of the Hakurei-ruled village.

It had been two, almost three months since her first coming of age rite. The year was 1877.

Feeling at her kimono, she shut her eyes and revelled in the breeze whipping through it. The wind was always aggressive this high in the air, but especially at this time of evening.

She figured it was probably ten o'clock.

'_I think that's a long enough break.'_

For the past number of months, much of her training for adulthood was loaded into each week. The clan and council took her safety more serious now by a margin. Her studies had been individualized from her peers, and such effort would be wasted if she were lost.

While there were other candidates for momentary rulership should her upbringing go awry, they'd likely be slowly phased into advisor roles instead. Unless, of course, something serious happened to her in the next year.

Kiyoko wasn't curious enough to find out how any of _that_ would go down if something happened to her. _'I have enough to worry about.'_

Despite this, in her free time, she also focused on herself. She'd never forget the simple, ominously dismal caution Milla gave her.

To follow her dreams and intentions, and to not let other people take them away from her without good reason.

She thought to their last exchange again. _'She means well… but, I can see how she'd be so foolish.'_

Kiyoko always knew Milla to follow her own impulses. There were many things that bothered her in this world; and they bothered Kiyoko, too.

'_But, sometimes, you need to think before you act. Not that Milla doesn't do that. Sometimes, you need to think twice. Context is important.'_

'_Milla may have thought she had a grand plan to avoid that evening. The outcome doesn't have to mean what she thinks it does. She was willing to throw away everything we had, to blow our cover prematurely.'_

'_The best plans are laid in time. The best plans evolve and adapt, because that is what we humans do. Diligence is above persistence.'_

For now, Kiyoko was at relative ease. Though she had to put more work into personal-care than ever before, if she kept this mood about herself, she was sure she'd see this through.

'_Milla had always thought me beneath her. But, months ago, that culminated in the inevitable sting. The shock of my studies and attentiveness.'_

'_Some things are better understood than spoken. I could never express the intricacy of my thoughts with a quill, or with words. Only with action.'_

Stepping from the large square balcony, Kiyoko moved back inside into the lit seminar room.

This was a room of science and study. One fit with the finest utilities money could buy in this land. Any implement of the era you could name decorated this tower, as it was reserved for the finest researchers of the Hakurei clan.

In this wide, warmly lit red-white hall of science, Toyoshige Hakurei attended to his desk, looking over a scroll.

He was an older man, his straight black hair beginning to show the greys of age. He was Kiyoko's mentor in the sciences and magic arts.

Up here, Kiyoko was somehow energized consistently. The lateness of the evening combined with the necessity of being attentive made her feel as if the world was moving; it was like there was constant activity in the lit village outside this castle spire.

'_I mean, in reality, everyone's asleep. But, the world's so massive… people are active somewhere else.'_

She came up to the desk. Every so-and-so evening, it was just her and him.

'_My schedule… twice every week, I'm up here in the science, magic and technology tower. We have another true magic tower, a tower dedicated to martial arts and combat, and a tower for logistics, pragmatic options— bows, lesser magic, common knowledge things.'_

'_Then there's the core of the castle, where only me and a select margin of staff and council may reside. It is a place of faith.'_

"...What's wrong?" She spoke up quietly. While Kiyoko mostly remained quiet at most times, it was clear on Toyoshige's face that he was reading something troubling.

"Oh…" He looked over Kiyoko, and smiled. "It seems you'll be needed back in the royal chapel early tonight."

'_I don't think chapel is the right word. Not that Toyoshige's always accurate with his words.'_

"...Am I?" Kiyoko looked down at the scroll herself.

It was messily scribbled out. Scrolls like this were common messages relayed through the castle, produced in massive amounts by just one man who had to quickly relay the message as many times as possible— in ink.

'_As such, usually reserved for… more minute, unnecessary messages and news. That way, the common writer need not scramble to produce it on time. This seems different, oddly.'_

"It pertains to all royalty." He confirmed. "You probably _could_ ignore it, if you'd like. It'd be a most definite option. I don't imagine it'd be so urgent, being a common parchment."

...Then, the question was: did she want some variety, or did she want to study sciences and the stars?

Kiyoko turned to leave. "I'm gonna go."

"Aa— ah. Okay…" Toyoshige seemed awkward, but he wasn't going to stop her from following a royal-fed order.

It'd be a somewhat long walk, but she enjoyed it. Kiyoko liked walking. _'Let's go.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Kiyoko walked up the grand hall to the audience chamber. This served as the front entryway to the inner corridors of the royal living space itself.

'_Pretty sure we intentionally designed the place to be confusing to any would-be trespassers. As if the magic wasn't enough.'_

At the end of her long walk up three separate tiers of stairs, she came to the series of sliding doors that lined the end of the hall.

_Shoof._ Sliding one open and leaving it be— as they closed automatically after left alone— Kiyoko browsed into the audience chamber.

Instantly, a myriad of voices. Those of her maiden colleagues, who were also Hakurei royalty.

"Those _damned_ Englishmen and their ways…"

"I told you this would happen one day."

"To think we defend _any_ of them."

"My brother has a servant of his own, back on the coast. Perhaps I should tell him to punish her on their behalf."

'_What's got the rabble all worked up?'_

In here, she saw her mother and father at their rightful places. There were no public Hakurei here to receive an audience. Instead, it seemed like the royal court was simply talking amongst themselves.

Maidens and samurai, those determined of worth and of closeness to the royalty resided here, and were technically royalty themselves. Most retained these positions by birthright, and few came and went on matters of valor or measured accomplishment. Or, with money.

'_Seniority thing, really. I don't really like talking with a lot of them.'_

They lacked wisdom, she found. Their views were like ripples in a pond. A select few people did things in this society, and they were not them.

Keeping a measured look on her face, she padded across the main floor, coming up to where her parents were seated. To not stir said pond, she needed to look her best at all times.

After plainly proceeding around the side of their elevated platform, Kiyoko got up onto it via some stairs around the back. There was a tiny seat between the two of them, where she sat. _'I'm getting a little big for it.'_

Her mother, her father. Hoshiko Hakurei, and Yasuoka Hakurei.

Hoshiko was like a living goddess. She towered over others, her princess-like disposition casting where she resided in unearthly beauty. Her skin was porcelain pale, her smile uncompromised, and her kimono as brilliant as the sun rising over all of Japan.

Yasuoka Hakurei was the samurai kannushi who lead combat efforts. He was more rugged, less graceful. His armor had been gilded by the Hakurei god, and the ancestral yin-yang orb— or, that was that was the story.

'_In reality, his armor was treated by alchemists and mages, who coated the steel and iron with silver, to give it holy properties. It's expensive, effective, and a cut above the samurai armor of this period— particularly in matters of the spirit.'_

"Kiyoko-chan." Hoshiko panned her mesmerizing, perfect smile towards her daughter. Kiyoko took notice of her perfect red lips, and her brown irises. "Have you heard the news?"

"...No?" Kiyoko wasn't sure how she would have.

Hoshiko reinforced her fierce smile. "Do you not converse these matters with your friends? Mmm. No matter."

The 'friends' she referenced were the other royal maidens. Hoshiko oversaw matters pertaining to the castle's infrastructure; a choice uncommon amongst the Japanese society, but she was an exception, as was this particular society overseen by the Hakurei clan.

Hoshiko decided who Kiyoko's friends were. Hoshiko decided what her hobbies _should_ be, and Kiyoko only found release from this vice in a few ways; leaving the castle, or in recent months, having enough age and clout to call some shots herself.

Hoshiko was the carrier of the Hakurei bloodline. While all of the clan had some of its blood in them, the purest, greatest concentration belonged to her.

And, by extension, Kiyoko. Were Kiyoko ever lost— to her own incompetence or someone else's influence— Hoshiko would need to bear another child.

'_Not sure what happens if that isn't possible. I don't think we've ever found out. Maybe we'd hand over rulership to the next purest link to the Hakurei god.'_

As Hoshiko directed the castle, this also meant she directed Kiyoko. Unlike a mother, her guidance wasn't direct yet lenient, nor precise but careful. If anything, it was the complete inverse. Indirect, vague, and somewhat ominous, with a laced intention behind each word.

"Should I tell her?" Hoshiko's piercing gaze met Yasuoka's eyes. "Or, would you be more appropriate?"

"Hmh." Yasuoka adjusted his jaw, as if considering. "What would I say?"

Their faces seemed comfortable under the warm light of the royal court, but Kiyoko could sense the unfamiliar tension between the two. Only recently did she realize how ironic it was, but it felt natural.

Hoshiko's smile became borderline venomous, but her husband knew it was one of wry wit. "You want _me_ to do it that much, hmm? That's fine."

"How'd you _like_ me to phrase it?" He reiterated his question. "There's a right and a wrong way of doing it."

"Do you not have the answer yourself?" Hoshiko let one of her brows twitch. "Your intuition fails you. I leave it in your judgment."

He gazed out at the royal court. Kiyoko panned her vision out at it too, and took in the voices of her peers.

"Do you think they'll be coming for us, next?"

"Heh? They'd have to cross the mountain. I think the oni would get to them before we could."

"Our existence is already dubious to Japan. We keep ourselves low-profile, and the youkai only serve to shield us. It will be in their absence, that we'd need to hide our arts... and, our swords as well."

Kiyoko looked to her father, Yasuoka.

He met her gaze with his hard one. "...Japanese swordsmanship is coming to a close. Our informants in the country have informed us—"

"Of a tragedy." Hoshiko claimed, deciduously. "A slaughter of the noble ways."

A slaughter? _'Where was this?'_

"As you may have known from your studies," Yasuoka began, not really sure since he left those to his wife, "the way of the sword in Japan has been under strain."

Kiyoko only vaguely knew of this. Some sort of rebellion happening to the east.

'_A reformation of the nation, unleashed by the growing empire. It's never really concerned me, as it's felt vague, but…'_

Suddenly, Hoshiko stole her husband's thunder. "Much like our holy arts and faith, we are being pushed back once again." She declared. "The way of the sword has come to an end. Shot dead by skilless conscripts. Grace stifled by the empire's foolishness."

Conscripted, gun-toting soldiers were something even the Hakurei themselves exercised. Though their use of matchlock was limited enough for even Kiyoko to remain unfamiliar with them— as they were specific peasant weapons of tangential relation to the bow, with more complication and less stature— they were still present.

'_What does she mean?'_ Kiyoko felt strange. She faced her mother.

She met her daughter's gaze, passionless but beautiful smile reaffirmed. "The Imperial Army of Japan fought the last of the samurai who served the country. With their numbers, the samurai were murdered by bullets. The new official armed soldier of Japan is the conscript. Soldiers without class, who may be _merchants,_ or peasants. Ones who simply_ wield_ the gun, and the weight of the skilled sword surrenders."

'_What…?'_

Matchlocks were no match for the samurai, Kiyoko believed. Yet, she had only seen them employed against low-tier youkai by non-Hakurei, village samurai. The Hakurei clan, with its spiritualism, remained settled in reverence of traditional Japan. As such, recent innovations in military— especially ones incompatible with their magic arts— seemed null.

Matchlocks had been decisively looked down upon by Hakurei maidens and kannushi. While they likely _could_ be affixed spiritually, it'd likely be a long time before anyone took them seriously.

"Explain to me…" Kiyoko was more assertive in this moment than she ever was with her parents; or so it felt. "A gun could hold such power?" Seldom could she ask a direct question so easily.

"It's more effective than an oni's punch, or a tengu's arrow." Yasuoka explained. "Unlike the matchlocks used by our conscripts through the last few centuries... the empire has been usin' recent innovations in firearm technology. Their guns are fierce enough to fell even some oni, and with the numbers they have, I'd call it likely. The sheer volleys from their rotaries could fell even oncoming tengu.

"Like so, a wall of peasants effortlessly fells spirit, youkai and skill alike."

That was crazy. _'...Really? I'm… having a hard time believing so. Wait.'_

Kiyoko looked between her parents. "The samurai lost? To _guns?_ ...And— the nation will no longer _use_ samurai?"

"Precisely." Hoshiko gave her a nod. "That's what we've been saying, yes."

Kiyoko wasn't sure why her affirmation annoyed her mother, but didn't particularly care right now.

Kiyoko _herself _would be a samurai of a sort, when she matured. Her parent's decision to make her both a warrior _and_ a shrine maiden was perhaps the most kind thing they'd done for her. They did not want a child who was politically lacking, such that they'd need someone who would make themselves strategically whole.

Hoshiko and Yasuoka themselves were an example of this. Hoshiko managed the paper, people, prayer and internal power, while Yasuoka saw the fields, the youkai, army provisions and external power. They did not want a child who lacked in one or the other, because they didn't exactly _like_ the relationship they had with one another.

Hoshiko was a threat to Yasuoka, and Yasuoka a threat to her. That said, their equal weight in the clan balanced things out between them. They knew it'd be silly to compete any more than they already have.

Therefore, they competed on the final battlefield; their heir and child.

"Leave it to the fuckin' west..." Yasuoka ran a hand through his own, short but straight brown hair. "If they hadn't mixed shi— _things_ up, we wouldn't be having this."

Hoshiko's beautiful face contorted into a fierce frown. "You will not speak so informally in the court, _husband._ Though, I do agree. Our weakness decades ago has lead to this. It is the west who onset this misplaced _worship_ in conscription, in change and in abrupt modernization. The empire seeks to _end_ the ancient ways, for better, or _worse._"

The way she emphasized the word _'worse'_ was an emotion all its own. Tense, seethed, laced with repressed anger.

'_That itself is nothing new. But…'_

The notion worried Kiyoko too. A sea of nobodies, who could put an end to all the meaning of the blade, all the grace of skillfully wielding a sword.

To Kiyoko, someone who studied the blade formally, who also practiced its techniques with Milla and in informal self-study, it was entirely backwards. A gun was a tool used by the conscripts incapable of fighting or aiming a bow. It was simple to use, yet it also had its drawbacks.

Guns had their uses against youkai defensively, but it was nigh impossible to mount an offense with them. Samurai were the true power, the true shield, and the true sword. To think they were bested…

'_The empire… seeks to abandon graceful battle.'_ Kiyoko put two and two together. _'They're giving up superior, skilled, graceful warriors for an army of… of idiots, it would seem.'_

Kiyoko thought sword fighting was violent. Yet, it was also beautiful. Battle could look like a dance, and the techniques— and _pain—_ that went into it fascinated her.

Bullets, however? No grace, no class. Gunmen were no warriors she knew, and regardless of how efficiently they killed, Kiyoko thought they never _would_ be. The only courage they had was the nerve to stand on the battlefield and fight the only way they could, and nothing more.

Before, the notion of the matchlock villager samurai was pitiful to her. Now? It was obnoxious. _'Soldiers like that… think themselves above samurai? They seek to end samurai? Of course they do, but… their numbers have given them success across Japan.'_

'_What a disappointment.'_

It became worse the more she thought about it. It was like walking an army of archers into the oni, and praying the oni died before the archers did. But, at least archers were too trained samurai, could use their blades, and act intelligently.

Peasants? Conscripts? None of that. You'd send fifty peasants into war— into a given skirmish of said war— and that was it. No praying; you knew only a few would come back, if any. It became no matter of skill and training and faith, but one of numbers, of raw human lives weighed against odds.

'_If it's working… that's what war will look like. Just numbers. If our clan doesn't adapt…'_

Kiyoko could see it. The fall of the castle, to _nothings,_ as Milla put it. Those ignorant not only of the intelligence herself and Milla exuded, but ignorant of the culture and ancestry here. The ignorance of their faith, and the ignorance of a way of life best left undisturbed.

If they couldn't leave the way of the sword alone, and had to crush it to a complete public end, what would happen if this place ever became accessible and known to the empire?

'_They would walk into our land, our village, and do worse than even our worst. They'd destroy our beauty, make a bad situation irredeemable, and—... and me and Milla…'_

Kiyoko's stressed mind filled in the blanks, and her expectations were filtered through a glass half empty.

Rape, pillagement, deaths before dishonor, and ruin. All would be lost to— and for— nothing. Stupidity, cowardice, and ignorance would reign in pleasureful contempt of her feeble attempts to maintain the mere act of living.

It'd be laughable. It was almost funny to think about. Kiyoko smiled in awkward incredulity, as she thought about it. Despite all odds, she and Milla would still lose in the end. Raped, killed— maybe not in that order— and that was it. Life would then summarily go on.

It'd be so anticlimactic too, if she wasn't quick enough. She would rule the land, fend off the youkai… and, after that, bang. In would come the Empire of Japan, and she would be no more than a pet to them. Or dead, since she'd likely have to commit suicide to retain her honor. Usurped before her beauty could bloom.

In part, she felt a degree of pride, being so forward thinking. If her parents were similarly so, they weren't showing it… and, she doubted their forward-thinking skills very much.

But, she also felt horror. A kind of pressure she'd felt again and again recently.

It'd begin with denial. Surely luck, the gods and her own complicity would lend into such a problem not existing in the first place, and she'd perhaps need not do anything. It's so far in the future, right? Maybe it wouldn't happen as she thought. It wasn't a _normal_ problem, surely.

But, reality wasn't bound by what was _normal_ or _expected._

As the outcome encroached, she would realize there was no way around it. The time for action would come, be it something inevitable that simply eluded her perception, or something that surprised her through random chance.

She could think of many examples. For instance, neglecting her duties in her studies, or in behavior. She'd continue forward knowing she was neglecting something, but not _what,_ only to then be punished instead of reminded. Some expectations were only stated once, and In her ignorance, or due to the chancey-nature of life's distractions, she'd forget them, only to be surprised later. It was hard to define the line between her lack of care and the harsh expectations of her role.

'_I need to be pre-emptive.'_

Being scolded for her behavior amongst her parents, something that as she grew up, always felt unexpected and arbitrary. Something she felt was fine before would eventually not be.

Now, it seemed like every little thing she did was not in their image, and they did not approve. It always snuck up on her— and when she disagreed and couldn't talk the issue out, it made a petty moment into something that made the absence of love pronounced.

She knew what would make them disagree now, but even with that, sometimes her mind introduced the suggestion: they surely couldn't be _that_ strict, or unaware of her own emotions and moods. Of course, that suggestion was usually wrong, but only recently did she come to realize there was no use hoping.

'_I need to be decisive.'_

In the face of this, she knew she was not alone. Milla suffered from these unexpected hardships and stupidities. Even other, shallower people here did so, and they struggled _exponentially_ more.

Every hardship for them which Kiyoko considered another Tuesday might be the first time one of these younger— or more naive— people had experienced them. The problem would stand out more, and they wouldn't see its roots, but they would feel its pain.

'_They're not so savvy. They're tripped up by the world we internally idealize more often than me. Time and time again, they neglect the harshness of their situation and are continually surprised… before again forgetting the missteps they took in the first place. Everyone here should be as wise as me, if we all followed the same vague path of life.'_

It was not so simple. Kiyoko knew. There was something people just didn't _get._ Some such people could spend the rest of their lives, decades, being continually harassed by issues Kiyoko considered basic. Was it for lack of trying? Sheer ignorance? Luck? The influence of others, who failed to impart the instinctual understanding, the situational awareness?

'_I'm not going to think myself into a corner, either.'_

Regardless, her situation was simple. In some decades— she knew not how many— Japan's new western ideals, as well as their new modern ideals, would be a problem. A thorn in her side that would graduate to her downfall. She couldn't live in an ideal world, for even if she had the power to shape it, she'd then need to _protect_ it.

'_How hard is it, to just… live?'_

The evening seemed to pass as a blur. Kiyoko sitting there, between her two parents. _'They scorn the modern ways… but, they don't see the horror. The horror that'd truly leave them on guard and alarmed.'_

'_They haven't thought it out, in the way I have.'_

'_They don't see. I know they can't.'_

She imagined the stupidity of a Hakurei kannushi, maidens or samurai commandeering western women and men as mistresses or servants, ruining their way of life and dramatically altering the course of how they'd live.

This would be like that, but on a grand scale. Without anyone to truly, strongly lead the masses, the future she imagined would be impossible.

'_It would be the end.'_

She swallowed. Next to her, Hoshiko laughed at something unknown, briefly stirring her.

"...Aww~." For some reason, Hoshiko was endeared by her daughter. "You look so cute like that."

Promptly, she pet Kiyoko, who simply hunched where she sat. Hoshiko's hand was soft, silky smooth.

It was in this moment, Kiyoko had her first revelation.

'_...Milla was right, after all.'_

'_We'll become strong. So strong, nothing from the west, no gun or Buddhist philosophy will be able to match what we would be, or what we could do.'_

'_I'll become the strongest being in the village. So strong, the village can't hold a candle to me.'_

'_But, this strength won't be just for my comfortable life. It won't just be so no one disturbs me.'_

'_It will be so all the idiots cannot dare defy me. It will be so the world will see my ideas.'_

Kiyoko gazed up, amidst the spiralling woodwork over the royal court. Her ambition began to well up from inside herself.

'_I'm smart. I'm cunning. I'm strong. And I'll be getting even stronger. I have a lot to learn, but I'm already halfway there, compared to my peers who've never even started.'_

She dared to dream again.

'_Reality will bend to a brutal will.'_ She knew this. Milla would disagree, but she'd be a hypocrite. They've been brutal all their lives. _'To not embrace our essence is weakness.'_

'_It is the truth. We Hakurei write in people's blood.'_

'_I will pen a beautiful future. All it will take, is a little care and flexibility.'_

_Magick Magician Milla!_

Holding onto ambition like that was hard. It was easy to think and idealize a life, and a way. But, to enforce one's beliefs, that took discipline. It took effort, sometimes monolithic.

Weeks later, Kiyoko stood in marginally colder night air.

Her body was caressed by the wind as she gazed out at the Hakurei village again.

An ambition like hers was put under constant self-evaluation. As her moods changed, so did her idea. Right now, it was just a fantasy, and fantasies were lucid.

'_There's so much I have to account for. The mere staff of this castle is massive, and the village itself is massive too. The youkai too must be in a horde. We are surrounded on all sides…'_

She thought over that evening with her parents again, when she learned of Shiroyama. With all that she heard, with what she was told, and what she learned of the matchlock rifle and the rotary gun, it all seemed to reaffirm her fears.

'_I saw Milla again, some days ago.'_

Kiyoko had forced all western villagers to rename their surnames. Families kept a unified last name, of course.

She had a myriad of reasons for doing this. _'It should keep attention off of us in the future. Other villages and territories do this, and have done this, for quite some time. It should help integration and stuff, too.'_

Except, there was one reason she did this more than any other.

'_It moves us away from western tradition.'_

Guns were a western invention, albeit adopted by Japan for its peasants. Youkai used western magic in part. As for western magic; it may not have been as ugly as _guns,_ but to Kiyoko, the resemblances were clear. Western magic used elemental tricks in the same way the gun was a trick on the psyche of a warrior.

Ruthless, brutal efficiency. A threat to her throne, to all warriors, to all with the strength to lead, and therefore, a threat to what she stood for, and the future she could promise the Hakurei clan.

The gun removed the spirit from fighting. To her, bravery had little to no place in positioning, numbers and provisions.

If war was going to look like that, and fighting for her beliefs was going to look like that, Kiyoko would rather die before submitting, or standing idly.

'_Milla wouldn't know. She's not me. She isn't in a position of power. Of course she'd just want to get away from it all. She wouldn't know what about this world needs to be changed to be our ideal.'_

'_Me? I have a duty. I have an opportunity. We should all work to improve the world, any way we can.'_

'_This is my way. Even if it's drawn in blood.'_

Kiyoko turned back inside, coming in from the balcony.

Here she was again. The science and magic observatory, upon the south-west tower of the village.

Toyoshige Hakurei once again sat at his desk, although this time he had no parchment that Kiyoko could use to get out of the evening. Not that she sought to make it a habit, but…

'_You take what you get.'_

Proceeding back in from the ten o'clock air, Kiyoko was ready to resume the second half of the evening and its studies.

Toyoshige looked up at her, and smiled. "Ah. Back already?"

"...I spent as long as I usually do."

"Really?" He pursed his lips. "I don't _think_ so. You sure you don't wanna go for a little more?"

"It's chilly out there." Kiyoko reasoned. "I'd rather just get this over with."

Snorting, Toyoshige gave her a big smile. "Oh? Now, that's no way t'look at things. Doesn't magic excite you, Kiyoko? If not that, science?"

"My holy rites do." Kiyoko re-assumed herself. "My Hakurei techniques excite me. As _thrilling_ as I find the routine magic spells, I'd rather learn about raw mana allocation. But, as my learning is rigidly structured, I assume you won't do that for me."

It wasn't that she had no absolute interest in these things; they'd be surely useful in perhaps making a clever plan or idea later. It was just, right now, she had bigger fish to fry.

...Toyoshige had a brow raised. This was perhaps the most Kiyoko's spoken to him at once. _"Raw_ mana allocation? And—... I didn't know you felt _that_ way. Though, you're not incorrect. Your mother, her grace and beauty, decided on this course of study for you. It'd mean my head to deny her, even at your heed."

Kiyoko figured.

"Though, perhaps…" He smiled wider. "Perhaps I can make an exception, for a cutie like you."

"...Cutie?" Kiyoko found the word choice peculiar.

'_Toyoshige used to be my sole advisor leading up until now. He always elaborated on my beauty to a redundant extent.'_

She remembered Milla's caution. _'At least, in the later months. He wasn't always… creepy. Maybe it's because I'm… of age, or about of age, anyway. Maybe he's just sucking up, and thinks I'd like to hear it.'_

His smile became gladder. "Certainly. We still have two hours left, this evening. I'm sure you won't mind me loading some of today's guided practice, into another session. Or, onto your own time, if you wouldn't mind."

"...Really?" Kiyoko thought that'd actually be fairly swell of him. "You'd do that?"

Toyoshige nodded. "Certainly. In fact…" He raised his arm into the air.

A blue light pulsed above him, with the way he folded his hand.

_Shoof._ Promptly, from another room, his two assistants came in. They were barely royalty; two young men around Kiyoko's age who helped move materials and sort objects, something which sorely needed to be done considering the state of some of the Hakurei storage rooms.

They both had short, somewhat evenly cut black and brown hair. "To— Toyoshige, sir?" One of them gave him a bow, and the other bowed on delay.

Toyoshige gave them a wink. "Um… Kiyoko-chan here, she wants to know about _raw_ elemental magic, y'see?"

The brown-haired one let his face flush. He was very surprised and excited, for some reason. "Oo— oh. Um… I see."

Moving up to her, the black-haired man gestured for where they came from. "I— I think we can make that work. Can— can I call you Kiyoko?"

"...Sure." Kiyoko kept her disposition neutral.

"Cool." Smiling, he moved for the sliding door he'd come out of. "...Uh, c'mon, Keita."

Keita, the brown-haired man, gave him a nod. "Aa— yeah." He was nervous, his heart beating really hard.

'_They're acting weird.'_

Kiyoko looked back at Toyoshige, who seemed to be idly gazing at them. At Kiyoko's stare, he began to look back down at his desk. People typically averted her intent gaze, so this wasn't too new.

She made for the room where the young men had come from. _'They seem to be around my age.'_

_shoof._ When she was inside, the door slowly slid shut behind her.

It was a closet. Crates, devices and knickknacks sat on either end of the wall in here, upon shelves. A dim magi-light came from above, using only a minimal amount of mana.

Kiyoko's gaze was dull. _'...How would we study in such a small—'_

_FVHIR!_ From the floor, a vague, luminescent red binding snapped for Kiyoko's form.

"Aa—" She froze, and looked down.

Her arms were bound to her sides, the messy wire keeping the entirety of either arm pressed firmly to herself.

"Ho—" Keita's voice was heard behind Kiyoko. "Holy shit— Yuji, it worked…"

The black-haired Yuji stood before Kiyoko, smiling plainly. "...Alright, I know what you're thinking." He began to walk closer.

"What's—" Kiyoko tried to force the binding free, but the strings were like steel, and only hurt to press against. "What's the meaning of this!?"

"Calm _down."_ Yuji declared. "I—"

"_Help!"_ Kiyoko yelled. _"Toyoshige!"_

Keita grabbed onto her kimono from behind, and began to push her forward.

_thud._ Kiyoko landed on her knees, using her shoulder to resist faceplanting. "Nngh—"

Yuji crouched down, and grabbed onto her shoulders. "Teacher already knows. You wouldn't like, _believe,_ how much this_ cost..."_

Grabbing her hips, Keita positioned her onto her knees. His hands were shaky, white with fearful pressure as his fingers slipped under her hakama.

Kiyoko, at first, found this almost funny. _'What…? This— this was so sudden!'_ But, she wasn't about to let her previous comfortable mood deny herself a state of alarm.

"_Help!"_ Kiyoko yelled again, and tried to kick her knees against the floor, and her heels against Keita's legs. _"He~lp!"_

Yuji used his arms to hold her upper body up, as he sat down before her. "Nnh. Co— come on. Be quiet."

"No!" Kiyoko barked back. "What the _hell—_ do you think you're doing!?" Now, she was getting frustrated and offended.

It was almost amazing, to Kiyoko. On such a peaceful, clear and windy evening, she was in some obscure place, with something like _this_ happening to her.

They both had a firm grasp on either end of her body. Keita peeled Kiyoko's hakama off, revealing pale skin to the air.

Yuji looked annoyed. "We're making you _my_ wife."

'_Wh— what…'_

Kiyoko blinked, and swallowed. "Wh— when my— when _Hoshiko_ finds out—"

"They'd disown you." Yuji asserted himself. "Because you'd be a whore. Whores don't become royalty."

Kiyoko felt her body jolt. Keita's hands began to massage her butt. "She's— so soft…"

Yuji smiled up at him. "Her _lips_ must be, too. Kiyoko— you're so _damn_ cute." He looked back down at her.

She glared back, as he caressed her chin. "Ff—... fuck off!"

He snorted. "It ain't like you to swear."

"_Fuck off!"_

'_Wait! I just need to float out of it! Call on the Hakurei god, and it will answer my prayer. Just like I was taught— just like I used in training, and against Milla...'_

She closed her eyes. But, the shifting sensation never came to her. She couldn't teleport out.

'_...Wh— why. Why!? Hakurei god!?'_

"Aa— nnghaa—" Kiyoko's mouth was forced open, Yuji using his hands to force her jaw open, pressing on her pristine skin and slipping his fingers into her mouth.

Keita's eager hands made their way under her fundoshi.

'_These idiots—'_

'_They— they'd take me away from this life. Make me theirs— rape me— destroy what I could bring to the clan—'_

They were cute. Though minimally, she was tempted. Keita was cute, and Yuji's aggressive way of dealing with her made her feel strange. She was of that age herself, after all.

But, could she really let this happen? In the face of her clan? In the face of her dreams? This would be even worse than letting Milla have her way.

No. She refused that. Yet…

'_Is it even in my hands anymore? The—'_

The Hakurei god wasn't listening. She realized it just now— that's what her inability to teleport right now meant.

It was all over. The Hakurei god had given up on her. Uselessly squirming here, she'd be made into a lesser Hakurei mistress of some cute young men in a back room of what was supposed to be her castle.

The end. On a random, peaceful evening, her life as she knew it would come to an end.

'_...No…'_

'_Even if the Hakurei god isn't listening…'_

Kiyoko glared up at Yuji, as she drooled on his hand, while he played with her mouth and cheeks with his fingers.

'_I won't be tainted!'_

Kiyoko realized what to do.

Retracting one leg— her right one— she brought her knee to her chest.

_Ri~p!_ She inadvertently ripped her hakama clean in half with that leg, as she pressed her foot into the wood floor.

"Aa—" When Kiyoko pounded her leg into the wood floor, her right buttcheek whumped into Keita's face, making him flop back onto his own butt. "Woah!"

"Ooh!?" Yuji's jaw dropped, as Kiyoko rolled onto her side, then her back. His fingers were still in her mouth, which was especially awkward.

Kiyoko clumsily, awkwardly stood on her feet. She still had her butt facing down, and she was awkwardly bending back into Yuji's grasp. It was a sort of 'crab-walk' type position.

Yuji quickly took his hands out of her lips, to grab onto her shoulders—

"_Spitoo~!"_ Kiyoko spat out a marble-sized yin-yang orb.

"_Wh— aagh!"_ It hit Yuji dead in his left eye, making him cringe back and curl up in pain. _"Oww~!"_

_Wham!_ With just her abdomen, Kiyoko rammed her own back into the floor, and forced herself into standing with the force with which she did so.

Keita was beginning to stand up. "Aa—" The bulge in his pants was quickly going away, mouth ajar as he beheld Kiyoko's pantsless glory.

"_Fwuh!"_ Kiyoko spat another yin-yang orb onto the floor, which expanded to torso radius.

_WHAM!_ She kicked it with such force, that it lit up with azure spiritual energy.

_BAM- CRACK!_ Keita's head was struck dead-on by the incoming orb. It had met his face on an arc, and the force slammed the back of his head into the sliding door's frame.

Yuji's jaw dropped. "Aa— ho— holy—" He held his arms up. _"Ki— Kiyoko! _Hold on—"

Kiyoko ran straight for him. He wasn't sure what to do.

As she ran, Kiyoko tilted her whole body forward, and headbutted him in the gut.

"_Huf~!"_ He cringed back—

_Bam- clack, clack, clack!_ The shelf he bumped shook uneasily. Stuff began to tilt over, and the whole wood structure shook back and forth.

_WHAM- CRCRACK._ Before he could get his bearings, Kiyoko's left foot came up, and under his rib cage.

Yuji felt like crying.

_BAM- CLACKLAKLAKLAK!_ The shelf behind him collapsed. A big globe, some metal platform, weights, and various crates collapsed onto him, burying him.

"Nnn—..." Keita stood up, holding his head.

Kiyoko ran at him, sock-clad feet pounding against the floor. Keita held up his arms, and threw a hook out of panic—

Lurching down, Kiyoko thrust her whole body forward, intent on headbutting him just above the waist.

'_I'm too damn strong for this!'_

_WOO~SH!_ Kiyoko's body was wrapped in white, amber and azure as she rocketed into his pelvis. Twin, flame-like dragons of aura energy spiralled around her form.

_KRACKA- KABAM!_ The sliding door was blown clean off its hinges.

_THUD- THUD!_ Back in the main seminar room, Keita's body limply bounced down the floor. _"Hughk— nanh!"_

Toyoshige stood up. "Wh— what the fuck…?"

Kiyoko lumbered from the back room.

_TWING… TWING- TWING- TWING!_ The red bands that bound her arms began to snap, curl and tear.

_TWITWITWANG!_ Then, in an instant, she broke free of her binds.

What'd she have to say to him? She searched her mind— for something scary, something foreboding— to reference her potential.

"_Hrraa~h!"_ Kiyoko yelled, first and foremost.

_Fwish._ She held up her arm, and the Hakurei god answered. Her bokken came to her left arm.

'_You answer me now, god?'_ Was it the bands, which sealed her prayer abilities? Was the Hakurei god listening after all? Did it choose to ignore her, to watch her prove herself?

Toyoshige held up his arms, gradually conjuring a holy barrier around himself. "Ki— Kiyoko—"

Kiyoko was behind him.

"_None of this can be changed!"_ Kiyoko roared a line she remembered telling Milla.

_WHACLACK!_ The bokken met the side of Toyoshige's head.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

4 | In the Halls of the Hakurei Heir

Milla sized up the Hakurei Castle from afar.

'_Big place, ze. Big place. Now…'_

She had a _certain_ limitation on how far she could send her spiritual clones. _'Turns out, uh, yeah, no cross-nation marathons for me. After a certain point, it just—... it just gets real damn hard.'_

After a few tests, Milla had determined a few different things.

'_First, the normal distance is… not spectacularly far. It's far enough to go around all a' the Hakurei Castle, but not, y'know, the whole village.'_

'_Second! ...Havin' sex makes the range go a lot farther! Only problem's that a guy's gotta run outta stamina eventually… an' I run outta stamina too.'_

'_Third, I have no idea how bad the vertical limit on this thing is.'_ The highest point in the village was the Hakurei Castle, through and through. Outside of that, not many things were nearly as tall by comparison. The magic complex was a mere tenth of the height of the Hakurei's domain.

Milla was atop the rooftop of the mainstreet building Mamako used to live in. She was able to give a key to the place; not that it mattered, since Milla could've blown the lock herself.

'_Guess it leaves less crap behind that'd be suspicious. Last thing I need is ta be forced to change hiding spots while my other self runs around the castle at the same time.'_

'_...Actually. I wonder if the Hakurei know anything about sex potions. Or, stamina potions, if that fails.'_

She'd easily made her way to the building's rooftop undetected. This particular building had a flat rooftop, which some other nearby main street buildings shared.

'_Guess what the Hakurei didn't quite disagree with, when it came ta building philosophies? Brick and mortar. Not that it was used a lot even then. These roofs still have a slight slant, so water can't pool up.'_

She sat with her back to an abandoned vanity left up here, tilted against some half-smashed cabinets. She'd faced herself away from the Hakurei Castle. _'Alright…'_

Closing her eyes, she let herself drift and dream on command.

'_Let's get this party started!'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

In the dark of the village's alleys, a ghost roamed the Hakurei Village, moving alone, undetected.

'_I'm a spooky gho~st.'_ Milla grinned, as she navigated the alleys leading up to the doorway behind the Hakurei Castle.

She was going to find Kiyoko. This was her goal. _'I'm gonna find her, and I'm gonna get some answers.'_

While she did want answers, she also wanted more. Inside, she knew she wanted to hang out again. She wanted to catch up, to bitch about the world like they used to. These past few months, for Milla, had been waiting. Biding her time, even as she's slowly lost it.

'_That stone hut really makes ya stir crazy, lemme tell ya!'_

This _irikyou,_ or _living ghost_ of Milla had green hair. She wore her trademark, neon blue robe. She had a similar colored skirt now, too.

Not that she exactly needed it. Looking down, she realized she'd let the lower half of her body blur out. It'd become a wispy tail, like that of a ghost's. _'Ah, yeah. Tends ta happen when I near the end a' the range. Really am just barely in bounds of the castle, even when my body's literally right smackdab in fronta' it.'_

Down here, Milla looked up along the perimeter of Kiyoko's fortress of fun.

'_Y'know what, that's what I'm callin' it from now on. Fortress of fun.'_

Of course, while this was the 'back door' to the Hakurei Castle, it was the front door as far as youkai were concerned. It was the most fortified place, facing the oni mountain to the south.

'_Hmm. Wonder how I'll get i~n…'_

The castle as a whole was basically just a giant, complicated box. While there _was_ the building-protected courtyard in the front, it lead up to the massively interwoven system of shoji walls and sliding doors that made up the base of the castle.

The rear had a massive wall which protected a minimally graceful rear courtyard.

She looked at the big, huge double doors that lead into said rear courtyard. They were immeasurably fortified, to a perfect state. If Milla wanted to pierce the _meters_ of metal that went into these doors, as well as the meters of raw magic enchantments, she'd have to dedicate a lifetime to it.

...Instead, she traced the wall beside the door.

She found a comparatively tiny steel door to the right, housed by metal grating.

'_They probably got lookouts out here, who might be able ta see me just waltzin' around out here. So…'_

As she stepped from the alleys, into the moonlight, her figure disappeared. It could be seen from up close, but with a little light manipulation— the most basic of 'holy' magic, she could be invisible from a distance.

There was a house, shrine-styled, which protected the metal, grated hallway to the door inside.

'_Nice grates.'_

Coming up to the left of them, Milla held up her alloy staff, which had a crescent on its tip.

'_Do I heat 'em up? Nah. The parts that'd become mist would give me away. No heat'n'freeze shit either, that's mega loud. How abou~t…'_

'_Bending them! Wait, no, better idea!'_

She snapped her fingers. _'Hot damn, I'm a genius.'_

_vrrr._ The yellow crescent tip of her staff became neon red, after a few seconds.

_VRRRRR._ She aimed it at the grate. Like she was waving a torch, she flicked a thin red laser up along the side of the metal grate wall.

It superheated the metal, to cut it. The laser was quiet; it'd vaporize straight through a simple line, like cutting butter, rather than melt all the bars or break them.

_Clack! Clack!_ It fell outward, landing amidst rock and soil. This wasn't quiet, but it was plain compared to how it would've sounded if she _broke,_ or bent, the metal.

Milla nodded, and proceeded in as if she was greeting the door guards. _'Mmm. Next time, I should climb the wall an' see what happens.'_

She came to the steel door.

_click._ The lock failed it in seconds, and she pushed it open. _'Magic alarm, disarmed!'_ There was a really basic sound trigger hooked up to the outside, which she quickly de-wired. _'Fuck's the point of that. Guess it's for already loud break-ins.'_

She strolled into the front yard. With a careful eye, she scanned the sky above: for any Hakurei that may intercept her efforts with a surprise attack, if they did that.

"_Nnhn—"_ That's when she heard a yell. _"Eraaa~h!"_

'_What the fuck! Already!? Fuck!'_ She reacted as if she was spotted, bringing up her staff.

But, she was not. Looking to the left, and up, she saw the source of the screaming.

It was an aged man, who plummeted from the south-east tower. Blood lined the air as he fell; he was apparently already in bad shape.

Milla watched the body hit the floor.

_THUD- CRK- CRUNCH- SQUECK._ The crunching of bones and the splat were all audible. A pond of blood was made from the ten story impact.

She cringed. _'Dude— what…? Did—...'_ She looked up along the tower.

From the warmly lit blip that she could see of the tower's insides, she saw the top balcony.

A woman was observing this. _'...S'that…?'_ Milla could've sworn she looked like Kiyoko.

'_First thing's first, I'mma be checkin' out that tower. Even if that ain't Kiyoko, anyone who launched a dude off a balcony's worth checkin' out!'_

'_S'also a place to start. Man, this place'll be a bitch to case.'_

"Hey…" There was a voice. A maiden; one of the royalty in the somewhat lame back-courtyard garden tonight. "Th— that—..."

After taking in the body and blood, she yelled. _"Guards! Gua~rds!"_

'_Good distraction as any.'_ Milla wouldn't have to be putting any effort into kiting the guards away from the back door, it would seem.

Her shimmering, barely visible form waltzed along in the moonlight. To her left, two samurai rushed off the main path with impossible speed up to the loud royal maiden, swords drawn.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Infiltrating the true interior of the fortress of fun was perhaps the most difficult— or, if not that, the most tense— thing that Milla's ever done.

'_Every door's a fuckin'... brain twister. These holy seals are real shit.'_

There were seals that attracted people when broken. There were fields which projected an energy which repelled existences like hers.

'_The maidens, the samurai— god, especially the samurai— everything's out to fuckin' get'cha!'_

Milla had no fucking idea where she was. At this point, she was just trying to go forward.

"I think—..." A voice came around a corner behind Milla. "I felt it. A youkai— over here."

"A youkai? In _here?"_ Some boy's voice was heard, too.

"Yeah."

Milla huffed. _'Goddammit— even the civilian-type people just up an' go 'oh what's this over here', literally— all the damn time!'_

_Clack._ Milla planted a bucket stolen from a broom closet on the floor.

_fwii~sh._ She plainly filled it up to full, dropping a glop of water straight into it. _'Alright a~nd…'_ Floating into the air herself, Milla moved to compact herself along the arched ceiling.

There _were_ rafters between the wedged hallway tops. Past the triangular ceilings, there were large, spacious crevices left by the architecture, reserved for support beams, backrooms and woodwork.

'_Are they safe to travel through, fer a youkai? ...No. Not at all, no.'_ Milla wasn't sure just _how_ many traps were in them, but one could rest assured that there were a lot of traps. The only places free of excess and perhaps overzealous trap design were the common hallway floors and airspace.

Telekinetically, she held the bucket over the edge of the turn, where the people were coming.

'_Bucket who? Maiden, or the kid? If it's the kid, she might attend to him— but they think there's a youkai, so if I take out the competent lady…'_

The brown-haired shrine maiden rounded the corner, looking left and right pensively. "...I _swear_ it's—"

_SPLASH!_ Milla used her magic to ram the bucket straight down onto the maiden's head. _"Ee— aaa~h!"_ She squealed immediately, arms propping up.

The young man with her had wide eyes, focused entirely on her. _"Misoka!?"_

Immediately, Milla dipped down while he helped her, and flew straight down the hall, moving faster than she could run.

'_Just bein' near them— not even in sight— clues them in on where and what I am. It's such a bitch.'_

'_...An' it's only gonna get harder as I keep prankin' people! I swear, I opened a broom closet wit' seals on it at one point!'_

Soon, she came to a tall, expansive stairwell. Perhaps she'd found the tower she was looking for. _'Oh, hey. Stairs—'_

_fwoomp._ The moment she even drifted near a staircase, the stairs themselves slid inward, and it became a slick ramp instead.

'_Wow. Dicks.'_ Milla had hardly sensed the trap that triggered that. _'Wait— ah, fuck.'_ She began to float up.

At the bottom, a door opened. Two samurai meandered out, looking around skeptically.

"Y'think it was _actually_ a youkai, this time?" One of them pondered. "I swear, the enchanter who put this up'll be on the street tomorrow morning. Y'know, if the heir got caught by this again."

'_Ya— ya mean Kiyoko went fer a slide herself, ah? Pft…'_

"Heheh, yeah." The other samurai looked up for no reason, on instinct. He didn't scan the stairs; he simply sensed a youkai straight up.

_BAM!_ A steel ball landed on his helmet. _"Rrghk— nnh—!"_

"Wh— what the fuck?" The first samurai beamed with incredulity, and snapped his gaze up too—

A maiden's bra which Milla stole from an in-castle dresser landed on his face. _'You wouldn't've believed the places I've been. I must've been here for fuckin' hours!'_

"Aaa—" He took pause at it, eyes widening. Yet, even still, he remained undistracted.

But, that instant was all Milla needed to get out of the way. When he looked up, she was gone, and so was her presence.

'_Where am I? Ah, top floor. I think… I think this's the tower I was lookin' for too!'_

'_Planned it? Totally planned it. If anyone asks, I planned that!'_

She came up to the sliding door to the room at the top here. _'Even the top of this stairwell is fancy shmancy. Bookshelves everywhere, a big window in a circular ceiling with a crescent an' stars in it…'_

'_Astrology an' science, that's the vibe I get. Research lab, maybe?'_

She stopped her hand before it slid the door open.

'_Oh, motherfucker. What—'_ There was a seal, naturally. _'...There's two. One for banishing youkai— of course— and one for requiring—... what, a…'_

She realized what it was. _'You need to have a red talisman on you. It's like a locked door.'_

...After a few seconds, Milla snapped her fingers.

_Click._ The door slid open a crack. _'No brute force protection, though. Good job. I don't need no fuckin' key-talismans.'_

_Shoo~f._ Careful not to lay a hand on the door itself, Milla telekinetically slid it open.

'_Wait— woah, it masked the entities on the inside! Fucking—... clever…'_

Her thoughts trailed off, as she stared ahead.

Seated alone at the central desk, Kiyoko looked up on impulse, glaring ahead at Milla.

On the right, there were two young men trapped in a box of prismatic barriers, sitting with their arms on their knees.

Silence. Kiyoko's writing upon sheets of paper ceased, and Milla's mouth was ajar momentarily.

Then, Milla beamed wickedly. _"Kiyoko-chan!"_

Kiyoko's brows twitched.

Floating inside on her wispy ghost tail lower half— the high elevation doing slightly unfortunate things to her legs, being a living ghost and all— Milla neared Kiyoko.

"What—" Kiyoko's eyes slowly widened. "What _happened_ to you…!?"

Milla almost guffawed. "Nnn—... alright— before ya wonder— I ain't _fuckin'_ dead, and I ain't no fuckin' youkai! In fact— I'll correct that double negative just so ya don't think I'm bein' glib. I ain't a youkai!"

Kiyoko stood from her desk. "...Ee— explain. _Now."_

Milla jerked her head back. "...You on your period? Well— _basically,_ I learned how ta project my soul inta a livin' ghost! And, like—... _remember_ it. And do it at will. You know of an _ikriyou,_ right?"

"Well—... yes." Kiyoko had an intimate knowledge of the common youkai bestiary. "So—... you're…?"

"Yeah— ain't, uh…" Milla looked to the right, and saw the young men. "These your boyfriends?"

"No." Kiyoko's gaze was flat. "They—... they tried to rape me. Just now. They conspired against me. I'm going to have them _hung._"

Milla pursed her lips. "...Yeah. S'fair."

Kiyoko snorted. "...Fair? Coming from you?"

She was laying out the thread for an argument. Milla remained impassive. "Mmm. Well, they're just pond scum, right? No one's gonna miss 'em. No one worth anything, anyway."

"That's—" Keita, the brown-haired man spoke up. "That's not _true!"_

Milla waved her arm back at them, but didn't feel like yelling, even though the urge was there.

'_What happened three months ago was a shitty precedent. Of reality, weakness, and a crap status quo. If only Kiyoko forwent whatever 4D shogi shit she was goin' for. We might've been peasants by the end of it, but—...'_

Milla thought back. Her past months in the magic complex dulled her angry desire for what could've been. It was three months ago— a long time to a sixteen year old.

'_...Would I really give up what I achieved now, for what could've been then? Would we really have pulled that off?'_

"That _is_ true." Kiyoko consented. "...Well."

Looking around the room, Kiyoko considered the situation.

"Let's—..." She moved for the balcony. "Let's go sit outside. Somewhere—... cool looking."

Milla pursed her lips. _'She totally pushed that dude off the balcony for tryin'a rape her, didn' she.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Milla dulled the fierce night wind, and the biting cold of mid-autumn, using her magic.

They both sat atop the railing of the balcony, along an intact portion of it. There was a piece conspicuously blown out. _'Wonder when that happened.'_

Both girls stared out onto the village at night.

'_Man. I climbed all the way up here.'_ Milla felt a sense of satisfaction. _'Fuckin' earned this view.'_

"So." Kiyoko began the talk proper. "What brings you here?"

"...Last time we met— last two times we met— didn't feel right." Milla decided. "Wanted ta set the record straight. An', y'know… I— I kinda missed, y'know…"

Kiyoko had a brow raised. In all the stress that was life here in the castle, she had bigger things on her plate than worrying about Milla. Her suspicions of those who'd molest her, which all culminated in a surprise attack this evening. The future of the clan, relative to the west's influence and the innovation of guns…

She figured Milla would be angry. But, she also figured she'd be so strong, one day, she could get over it. She'd make Milla get over it.

This was a surprise, altogether. She wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Do you want to talk about _that evening?"_ Kiyoko got straight to the point.

"Well. _Yeah."_ Milla nodded. "I watched you slit the back of her neck. How'd it feel?"

"Like nothing."

"Like nothing?"

"Nothing."

...Milla nodded, idly.

Kiyoko elaborated. "I did what I had to do. Look—... in the face of everything that could be—... it would've just been a _terribly bad,_ _childish_ idea to do that. To run away, in the face of it all."

Brows furrowed, Milla took in the village.

Kiyoko kept going. "And, what of you? Would you have learned this kind of spirit projection? You wouldn't have that life at the complex, would you? ...I don't know if you value any of the time you spent there, but—... if nothing else, it'd've been a reprieve from your pops."

"Fa— fair." Milla had to admit. "Still—... I'm always gonna be curious. It's always gonna be in the back of my head. What if we _did _that? We can't say for certain how it'd've gone."

"...I can guess how it _probably_ would have gone." Kiyoko returned.

Milla had the urge to roll her eyes. "..._Nah._ You're—... ya couldn't."

"You don't know what _I_ know." Kiyoko returned.

"...Fuckin', _educate_ me then, princess."

Kiyoko was more than glad to. "Do you know of _guns,_ Milla?"

"Yeah?" Milla reply was summary. "Never exactly interested in 'em. Would be nice ta have, though."

Kiyoko took pause for a moment, before continuing. "Just recently… outside of this village, the sword has been abandoned. The grace of horse and rider, replaced by guns and violence."

Milla snorted. "And? I— dunno where yer goin' with this."

Furrowing her brows, Kiyoko continued, despite her growing annoyance. "Let me _explain._ Firearms have improved recently. These new guns can fell _Hakurei_ _samurai,_ and they are free to be used by even the _peasant class._ They effectively usurp the main force of the Hakurei clan. They usurp even common youkai from their terrible roles."

Milla had to interject. "Holy _shit._ That sounds great!"

Dead stop.

...Milla read Kiyoko's anger. "Uuh—... I mean, not for _you_ rulin' anything, but it'd help clean this place up in a fuckin' beat. Can someone say _revolution?"_

"No. You don't _understand."_ Kiyoko couldn't convey her understanding. "The gun brings ruin greater than even what our clan brings to its common people. _What,_ pray tell, do you believe would happen once the _Imperial army of Japan_ comes to revoke our weapons, crush our _Shinto_ belief, and slay the most of us?"

...Milla was about to speak, but she realized there were a lot of things _to_ say about that situation.

Already prepared to say them all, Kiyoko continued. "Assuming the dismal chance they may fail to banish the youkai despite crushing us doesn't occur, they will undoubtedly reign this land _themselves,_ using even less structured principles than _ours._ This whole push for modernization can be traced back to _western society._ I wouldn't doubt we're adopting systems from them, too."

"...I see~." Milla was taking in the proposed sequence of events.

"That means, for all of us here, we have nothing we can do except be raped, pillaged, or slain, not in that order." Kiyoko affirmed. "...Frankly, I find the idea of something as ordained as the castle, even as foolish as it is, being desecrated so barbarically… it's— it's like what _you_ called a precedent. _That_ would be a precedent. A _sickening_ precedent. An _ending_ to the Hakurei clan, and its tradition."

Kiyoko had a moment of realization. "...Something similar is happening to _Japan_ as a whole. The way we've folded to the west, whose vying hands have opened our ports in recent decades. They've contaminated our culture, and when we're most vulnerable, they'll come and take it."

Her first enemy would be the clan. Her second enemy would be the youkai. Her third enemy would be the empire, and all of Japan. Her final enemy would be the western world's inevitable pull and force.

Milla nodded idly, folding her arms.

"In the face of this all…" Kiyoko supposed she should've opened with this thinking. Organizing one's thoughts was imprecise at the best of times. "I—... believe I can fix what is wrong with the clan. With the land we reside in."

Milla considered that. She _did_ like the sound of that.

'_Still… them priorities…'_

Milla looked Kiyoko in the eyes. "If our opposition is so massive… what if we just _didn't?"_

Kiyoko's scowl deepened.

"'Cause… I'm gonna be honest. An' I dunno how much you _actually_ like yer family here…" Milla considered this. "Who _cares,_ about the Hakurei? If this village is _fucked_ nine ways ta Sunday… like—... can't we just go somewhere the imperials _already_ were? Set up a new life, maybe? Hell, with our power, we could like, maybe get in on this whole reformation—"

Kiyoko growled. "You cowardly little _bitch."_

Milla pursed her lips, focusing on Kiyoko more intently now.

"Listen to yourself." Kiyoko's scowl did anything but ease up. "The greatest concentration of magic and faith in the entirety of _Japan_ is right here. Ignoring that… weren't _you_ thinking _me_ cowardly, for not following through with_ your_ hair-brained_ plan?"_

"...I get it. You wanna change shit." Milla admitted. "But I always thought, if we could, we'd look out for _ourselves._ For _us._ To make our _own life,_ the kind we both would have fun with. One away from all of this bullshit. Society's horseshit. That's why this all doesn't make sense to me. Way I see it… you're just makin' this harder for yerself. An' I _don't_ think you'll be happy, at the end."

Milla kept going. "The people? They don't love you. We're surrounded by enemies. Stupidity, annoyance, and failure. How about we let them simmer in their own _piss,_ and just _go?"_

Kiyoko snorted. "If there's anyone that will be simmering in their own piss, it's you."

Jerking her head back, Milla blinked. _'How's she still just— gettin' angrier? What'd I say!?'_

"To always be running, to always be covering ourselves, as the world _practically burns_ around us…" Kiyoko grit her teeth. "I'm going to take the world's cruelty, its might, and _send it right back._"

She leaned towards Milla. "And _you_ won't _piss on my dream."_

...Milla grinned. "Oh? S'that how it is? Well, if we wanted ta play fuckin' _hokey pokey,_ my idea's the exact same. We run off for another great payoff, culminatin' in our _grand_ world domination plan, hoho_ho!_ Good!"

"That wouldn't be _the— fucking— same!"_ Kiyoko's face was fierce. "Everyone here would still be _dead _or _broken._ Youkai would still wring fear from the people. All running _now_ would do is leave me to lament my abject failure, my _submission_ to the _stupidity_ that plagues the human _race."_

If Kiyoko was only thinking about herself, she thought, she would have been onboard with being raped by two good-looking, young peers. Her royalty and familial status wouldn't have mattered. This notion only gave her anger more fuel. That was one of many examples of the stupidity she referenced.

"Well. _Okay."_ Milla's head was getting dizzy from the adrenaline of the argument. "Let's— let's say s'all _over._ You _won._ You killed the _whole_ fuckin' empire who came to break yer walls. You put the oni six— six _hundred meters_ under the ground, and ya made the tengu a new fuckin' _box._ What then? You happy then? Would it be time to slow down and _be happy_ then?"

Kiyoko had hardly considered the notion. The matters of the present were far more pressing. But, she had ideas. "...As the Hakurei, we'd always seek more youkai. Barring that… I'm sure the _empire_ has done remarkable damage to Japan and its people."

Milla blinked. "...And?"

"If we—... if _I_ could take a whole imperial army," Kiyoko looked to the stars. "I'd hold control over all of _Japan."_

...Milla had to resist smiling. "Yeah?"

...Kiyoko gave her a glare.

"I think yer fuckin' crazy if you believe that." Milla didn't see eye-to-eye with her.

Kiyoko snorted, and smiled. In vague expectation of her doubt, but also bitter amusement at her disbelief.

"Think of the headache your _perfect_ parents have with keepin' a leash on this dinky fuckin' plot of land." Milla argued. "We can see each end of the village if we rotate three-sixty up here. Yet, it's _fuckin'_ impossible."

"Because they only _care about themselves."_ Kiyoko panned to Milla in realization. In revelation, even.

...She pointed at Milla. "People _like you_ are part of the problem."

Milla had a pit in her heart. "An' idiots who think they're too smart for their own _damn good_ are part a' the problem, too!"

'_You say this like you aren't thinking for yourself, either.'_ Milla narrowed her eyes.

"You're _deficient."_ Kiyoko decided. "So close— but so _flawed."_

"An' you're a _tool."_ Milla countered.

"Di—... _dismal."_

Milla began to chuckle. "Fu— fuckin'... listen ta yerself, dude."

Kiyoko had the instinct to laugh with her. But, just as her mouth curled into a smile, she contorted her face like it was physically painful.

"Don't—..." Milla was losing steam. She didn't want to argue with her friend. "Don't go actin' like… you ain't thinkin' of yourself, too. Thinkin' you know best, thinkin' you deserve ta be—... the _one_, who does fuckin' everything. You're just— like, you're just Kiyoko. Greed's more than just wantin' money, y'know."

"But—..." Kiyoko was tired of this, too. It was late. Her body was already on a series of ups-and-downs due to today's stress. She looked down, and saw her hands were shaky. She'd been gripping her bokken, as if to lash out at Milla. "I know that. But, it's all so clear. I know I'm right."

"You can be right." Milla decided. "Just—... I just don't think bein' right's _worth it,_ man. I don't think you're gonna be havin' any fun. An', like—... how'm I gonna hang out with ya— if you're just… always doing this dumb shit?"

Kiyoko shrugged. "I don't know. That's not my problem."

...Milla sniffed. _'Damn it. You fucking—...'_

"Well." Then, Milla smirked. "I ain't lettin' you piss on _my_ dream either, bitch."

Kiyoko snorted, and gave her a questioning look.

"I ain't just gonna let you throw yourself into the fuckin' fire like a raghead." Milla's smirk grew. "You can't be a bitch about it, if I just pummel everything outta ya. How the hell would you even deal with this _village,_ if you can't deal with _me?"_

"How like you." Kiyoko nodded. "To reduce this already worthless conversation to a blood sport."

"Motherfucker, _please."_ Milla beamed. "We're two of a kind."

...Kiyoko sighed. "I suppose so."

"Violent, bloodthirsty, pain-dealin' junkies." Milla affirmed.

"You sound like a loser when you revel in it." Kiyoko countered.

Milla chuckled. "Aw—... an' you sound like a liar when ya _don't."_ She became giddy, grinning. "I'm like— like the _yin_ ta yer _yang!"_

Kiyoko cast a vacant, dismal look to the stars.

"Nnn…" Her smile no longer reaching her eyes, Milla reeled her left arm back. "Hehehehe! Aw, man. Yer a riot."

_PAP!_ She slapped Kiyoko on the back. Or, rather, she pushed her.

Kiyoko's heart jumped, as she slid forward and off the railing.

'_...Three, two~, and—'_

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko had teleported up behind Milla, and shoved her off— with her bokken's straight edge.

"_Aa— fuck, whoa~h!"_ Milla pretended to take a dive, flailing as she fell down ten meters or so.

...Blinking, Kiyoko leaned over the ledge.

"_Boo."_ Milla was behind her, and blew into her right ear.

"Ee— aah…!?" Kiyoko froze up, and spun around. "You—..."

Despite the mutual hostility, Milla had a wide smile. "...Y'know. I think I see how we can both get what we want."

Kiyoko still had her brows furrowed.

'_Fer now, at least.'_

"Hey." Milla spoke up. "...What'd'ya say, after we break each other's arms, we go out fer ice cream again?"

It was probably one or two in the morning now, and Kiyoko already felt like dropping dead. "...Fine."

'_Maybe this is just right. I dunno. Somehow… it feels like an ending, for at least a little while. An' that's how long resolutions're good for typically, right?'_


	5. The Maiden and the Magician

Kiyoko strolled down the village mainstreet.

It had been some days since that evening. Where Milla had followed up on their disagreement, and demonstrated her variable ignorance.

...But, after thinking it over, Kiyoko had realized a thing or two. She and Milla were more alike of mind than she honestly cared for at the moment.

She may have found Milla insufferably confident at the moment, and flawed in her ultimate interpretations about the world and what they should do, but… she was certain the feeling was mutual.

For Kiyoko, it was somewhat irritating. It was humbling, in a way. It wasn't completely unbearable, knowing that Milla _was_ a thoughtful person at heart. Still, to think that her reasoning could be challenged in such a way felt like a setback.

To be truly strong, she had to be unopposed, in every way. Unchallenged, not for locking herself away, but by being so above all around her, that any challenge would be summary and unremarkable.

She wouldn't give up her thinking for anything. Neither would Milla. She supposed, after all, Milla was at least not a hypocrite. That, or they were both hypocrites somehow.

"Alright." She spoke up loudly.

As part of her training, she was to secure a specific portion of the village near the castle, and protect it from 'youkai'. Other maidens and samurai would be acting as the 'youkai' in this scenario, and they'd be using play bullets to tag one another in a statistically sound manner to trial Kiyoko's strategic and critical capabilities.

Turning around, she rested her flat gaze on the company of commanding samurai who followed her. "Kyuwa Furusawa."

"S'me." A tall, imposing man nodded down at her.

"You hold west main from here. Position yourself aggressively."

Commanding other people was somewhat dull to her. Though, she understood the necessity.

She wished she was faster, stronger. Capable of holding an area like this by her own blood and merit, without relying on the inefficiency of others. Orders could be disobeyed, misinterpreted, or simply unfulfilled. Not every samurai was the image he portrayed.

"Suto Masao. You station the other side of main. Koda Soichiro, manage the southern roofs, central. Ideally be between the two legions on the floor. Hitarashi's company will split up and cover all allies, as scouting. Koki's company shall take the northern roofs."

That would be two companies on the sides, two for each direction of village roof, and one for general grasswork headaches. This left the sixth division, of villager samurai.

The company she split up for the allies was of shrine maidens and their male equivalents. Not fit for open battle, but excelling in one-on-one skirmishes. She was given four actual samurai units of the Hakurei faith, one company of support-type faith practitioners, and one company of the expendables.

Villager samurai were few and far between, but they were also hard to use, and not very powerful. They were more likely to disobey or misunderstand orders, they weren't as well trained as the Hakurei, and they thought about themselves.

"Iwayama's company, sticks with me." Kiyoko declared.

Her logic was: if one side was pressured too hard, she'd dial back its Hakurei, to have them organize themselves and heal. Meanwhile, she'd send out the meat shields, who couldn't necessarily do anything other than mutiny or comply. There was no in-between, when the order was simply 'charge in this direction'.

"Am I understood?"

No one spoke back. The Hakurei heir was to be obeyed. Generally, the top royalty had the greatest success rate when it came to order compliance. The public saw the Hakurei heads as borderline superhuman.

"Yes."

"As you wish."

"Alright- let's go!"

"We'll go."

Then, the quiet mutters and affirmations of compliance. Kiyoko nodded.

Today's lesson was simple in essence, and on paper, but was basically a test of her courage and nerves. Her forces would be pressured on all sides, and she'd have to intelligently swap them around and rotate them rapidly to keep them 'alive' and to hold off the endless 'youkai' horde as long as possible.

It all came down to execution and efficiency. She didn't plan on wasting time or energy.

The men moved, the clattering of swords and armor audible. Not that they'd be using them that much. The Hakurei play bullet, _danmaku,_ would be used in substitution for deadly combat.

Kiyoko looked up, at the wispy white sky. It might snow, one of these days. It was getting cold enough.

She mentally beckoned the training to commence, standing rigid and tall in the middle of the main road.

...As she stood there, surveying the departing men, she remembered an explanation she gave Milla. Some of the Hakurei clan's sub-families would have different last names. They'd be part of the clan, but their surname wouldn't exactly be _Hakurei._

Those admitted to the royalty proper would become part of the _Hakurei_ surname. Those who were more distant were of families who originally joined into the clan. This became less obvious as time went on, and some of those sub-families became small clans of their own within the Hakurei itself.

Kiyoko had heard, in the past, when the Hakurei moved into this village to commandeer it and save it from the youkai, some sub-clans remained at their previous fixture. As in, they'd stayed behind at the previous den of the Hakurei clan, while the rest of the clan moved on elsewhere.

The Hakurei clan itself had to be mobile to treat the threat of youkai, wherever it was. Kiyoko didn't think they kept up with the faithful they leave standing vigil in these previous locations.

Though, this stretched the definition of 'mobile' pretty thin. Kiyoko couldn't get an estimate on _when_ the Hakurei clan did a migration before the last one. Probably too many decades ago for anyone alive to remember.

"He~y! _Kiyoko-chan!"_

Kiyoko tensed up. She wouldn't, not _now,_ surely?

That's when Milla landed dead in the center of the road before Kiyoko, dust billowing out from her landing. Her hair was a brilliant, bright green, and she held a crescent-tipped alloy staff overhead.

The human samurai standing idle around Kiyoko all froze up. "Aa-... wow. It looks so real…"

"Them Hakurei costume designers are something…"

"What's that supposed to be? A mage?"

Milla beamed, and held her staff overhead.

Kiyoko's heart jumped. _'Oh, shit!'_

"_Camilla Coil!"_

_KRACKA- ZAPZAPZAP!_ Arc lightning curved from her staff, and in one stroke, passed through all the human samurai.

Kiyoko peered down from atop a veranda's roof, which she'd been spooked up onto by the spell.

On the floor below, the human samurai were writhing about, tased and awash in pain, their armor having betrayed them. _"Rrr- nnh-"_

"Dh- dahm- it-"

"Fuck…"

Kiyoko's face contorted in annoyance. "You-... you _idiot!"_

Milla ceased spinning her staff, beaming up at her.

"What are you _doing!?"_ Kiyoko drew her bokken back.

_WOOSH!_ She flipped from the veranda's awning, and cleaved the wood blade down with one stroke.

"_Reflect!"_ Milla thrust her staff's tip towards the bokken's edge.

_TI~NG!_ An irritatingly high sound rang out, and Kiyoko's bokken flew from her own hand. "Wh- _aa-"_

_thud._ She landed on her butt, her balance betrayed.

"So!" Milla beamed down at her. "How's _that_ spell!? Give yer barrier shit a run fer its money!?"

Kiyoko's face was awash with retributive fury. "Get fucking _lost! _You're gonna screw it all up!"

"What?" ...Milla plainly ran her gaze over the fallen human samurai. "Y'think I give a shit…? I'm gonna style all over ya! Prepare t'get _fucked,_ Kinky-chan!"

_Fwish._ With a flare of light, Kiyoko's bokken was back in her hands. "I'll _smash your teeth _out!"

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

5 | The Maiden and the Magician

"Whew."

Milla took a deep breath, exhaling as she meandered into the magic complex again. Evening was just setting in. She had a fun time kicking Kiyoko's ass, and having Kiyoko kick her ass in turn.

Now back in her real body, she brushed aside her brown locks, and lumbered for the cafeteria. _'Need me some milk an' a water, ze. Spent the whole day being a hooligan, basically.'_

At the moment, no one was around the bottom level of the common foyer. It was pretty commonly devoid of life, since everyone liked being on the second floor. _'Mmh. Oh, wait…'_

Yu marched up to Milla. "...Camilla."

Milla made a beeline for the kitchen, ignoring him.

"There was an _event_ in the village, today." He kept on her tail. "Would you happen to-"

Milla gave him a look. "I'll rip off yer head and shit down yer neck."

He staggered back, eyes wider. "...Oo~... okay."

'_Don't know why this guy even tries anymore. Regardless, ain't in the mood to play asswipe bingo. Or- uh...' _She'd made herself grin by accident.

Inside the kitchen, a number of people were plainly eating at the various picnic tables.

'_Let's see, who do we got here of note…? Ah, Gabby's in here. Dunno where they let 'er go half the time. Now that I think it, it's hard ta name where the dark mages are mosta the time.'_

Passing plainly into the kitchen's back room, Milla held up both hands. Cups, milk cartons and a glass- soon to be a glass full of water- all responded accordingly, floating through the air according to her will.

At this point, she had the preparation of post-adventure beverages down to a mental routine at this point. The staff and mages allowed back here for cooking and meal preparation didn't typically mind random people going back here, as long as there weren't too many.

'_Might be rife fer sabotage, but I think I'm like, the one person with that thought process. An' we're all mages, so someone could easily sniff out somethin' fishy.'_

Soon, she had her two cups, one of water and one of milk. "Mmh…" Immediately, she began to scarf the milk down.

"...Ha~h." Exhaling, she smiled.

'_Let's see. Hmmh…'_

Coming back through the cafeteria, she gave Gabriella a passing glance, and moved for the common foyer.

Floating into the air, she plainly came up onto the second floor.

Mamako was up here reading a book, sitting upon the leftmost couch.

Henry was seated plainly next to her, seemingly looking for when Milla would appear up there.

"Wisps, are _so_ bloody _annoying."_ At the second couch stationed at the same coffee table, Peter was venting his frustrations about the local youkai. "At least you can _burn_ the suffocatin' moths, but wisps're like elementally-attuned bees!"

...Henry gave him an idle stare. "Maybe that'd be _less_ of a problem, if you specialized in more than fire magic."

Peter grinned back. "Says the_ ice_ mage. Let's see _you_ use fire, ah?"

"Let's see you use _ice._"

Milla slowly came up to them, finishing off the rest of her milk…

"Ha~h!" With that glass dusted, she beamed. "Whassup, _bitches!?"_

Mamako smiled at her. Henry snorted, and Peter gave her a wave. "Hey, cunt."

Milla had a smile creeping up her face. "Y'all a buncha introverts, I swear."

"Like _you_ aren't, in essence?" Henry contested.

Milla smiled, and nodded. "Shuddup."

Moving between Henry and Mamako, Milla plopped down. "Nnh."

...Slowly looking over from her book, Mamako spoke. "I've noticed you've been hitting the town, more often. What have you been up to, these days?"

"Aah." Milla figured she'd keep it generally under wraps. Word would probably get around anyway. "Seein' the sights, so ta speak."

...Mamako's expression didn't change. "You are a horrible liar."

Milla's smile intensified. _'And didja hafta point that out!? ...Not like it matters.'_

"Yeah, wh'ever." Milla leaned back, setting her empty milk glass on the coffee table before herself. "I'm too beat ta care."

Peter leered. "Beat, huh? I bet ya would be. How many lads ya jerk off today?"

Milla snorted. "I'mma jerk yer neck off yer shoulders."

Henry flicked his gaze up. "...Peter, I _fail_ to see how you became jealous after she _repeatedly_ rammed you in the balls."

"Oh? You talkin' shit, Hen!?" Peter beamed back at him. "I'll burn ya bushy blue pubes off!"

Grinning big, Milla interjected. "And how'd _you_ know what they'd look like!?"

"I miss when we were nice to each other." Mamako had an expression between awkward and amused.

Peter nodded energetically. "An' I miss the time before I got _smashed in the balls!_ But y'don't see me wishin' for made-up shit!"

Henry stared out one of the windows behind Peter, that Milla helped install some days ago. "For some reason, I don't mind."

"'Cause you're gettin' _laid_ by a _total hottie!"_

...Milla double-took. "Wait- y'think I'm what now!? I swear, if you got a thing for _ballbusting,_ I'm gonna fuckin' put ya out, Smokey-"

That's when another woman came up to them. Someone Milla hadn't seen before. _'An' who the fuck's this?'_

She was a pristine looking woman, with beautiful pale skin, and long black hair done up in two big pigtails. Her bangs went down over her eyebrows, stopping before her sedate, green irises.

She had a thick blue kimono on, which obscured most of her features, and it advertised a floral pattern of red which contrasted with the blue. _'What a fruity dress.'_

"...Hello." Her voice was slightly raspy. "Do you four have… room, for one more?"

Milla noted the cute blue, maid-like cloth she had atop her head. _'She looks like… mom material. Only thing she's lackin' is boob size, which I lack too, but the way that heavy kimono fits her figure...'_

Henry and Peter made an 'o' shape with their lips. Milla snorted.

"Ye- yeah!" Peter patted the cushion next to himself. "Sit on down, honey!"

The woman snorted, and smiled. "...Okay."

Plainly, she sat down next to him, and he scooted closer to her.

"Anyway." Henry spoke up plainly… "Milla. You read any good novels recently?"

Milla snorted. "...Well, _no,_ actually. When my life got flipped, I kinda fell outta the novel scene. The hell'd a mundane question like that come from?"

He grinned. "Have you read _any_ novels, for that matter?"

"Freakin', _yeah._ I used ta read a buncha novels, some months ago." Milla clarified. "...Me an' a friend would keep up wit' them an' take the piss outta them."

Peter turned to the nice-looking woman next to him. "Who're _you?_ I- I mean, what's yer name?"

She felt at her own breasts, briefly pressing them in. "Mmh. Honami Takara." It was as if her kimono was slightly uncomfortable.

Peter's eyes widened at the way she seemingly groped herself, however. "...Wo- wow."

'_...She's got magic on herself. As if she were maskin' her appearance.'_ Yet, Milla could determine she wasn't a youkai. _'Somethin's hokey. Japanese person, with only non-elemental signatures, an' no holy or dark affinity?'_

"Honami's a hot name." Milla agreed. "What brings a sexy like you here?"

"A- a sexy?" Honami gained an easy smile. "Interesting word choice."

"Sex person." Milla noted. "T'be honest, you look like a whore."

Peter gave Honami a tense look, hoping she wouldn't be too offended.

Honami just snorted. "Oh? That's something, coming from a runt of the litter like yourself."

Milla snorted. "What litter? I'm an only child, ze."

"Pft." Honami shook her head. "We~ll. It's not like it's unlike westerners to make accidents."

Milla's grin intensified. "Do you want me ta taze yer ass? 'Cause ya sound like ya want me ta taze yer ass!"

"No, no." Honami held a hand up. "I apologize. I got ahead of myself."

Peter had a smug look. "...If ya ask me, I think Milla's been _sleepin' around."_

Milla was about to retort, but Honami spoke up instead. "Oh? And what makes you say that?"

Pausing at her inquisitiveness, Peter raised a brow. "I- I mean, she hits the town all the time. S'gotta be a _reason._ She hates it there!"

...Honami let her gaze drift up. "If anything, I find it hard to believe _her_ of all people would be into that. Does she even _have_ sex?"

"Yes, actually." Henry noted. "...With me."

Honami met Henry's gaze, and just let her mouth open. "...Re- really, now."

Milla grinned. "We- well, yeah. Look, he might _look_ like a tool, but he's _got a tool,_ if ya know what I mean, ze… and- y'know, his look kinda grows on ya without the glasses, and when he's goin' down on ya."

Honami's mouth went ajar further. "...I- never took you for someone like that, Milla. Yet…" She looked down at herself. "I- I couldn't think of… how did he do it? How did you let him have his way with you, so easily?"

Milla was getting an _extremely_ weird vibe. "...Um. I- I mean-... what's it to _you?_ Do I know you?"

Honami blinked. "Just- tell me." The raspy quality to her voice had vanished mysteriously, some time ago. In fact, it was taking on an uncanny, authoritative monotone quality which Milla recognized…

"...Well." Milla supposed she'd tell the story. "I was investigatin' how mana worked with human emotions. I wanted ta get Henry's hopes up ta see what'd happen, but then we just started makin' out, and, uh…"

'_Was about then that I figured out I bit off more than I could chew! I mean, he might not be the peak a' masculinity, but, mmh… there's some magic there, alright...'_

"It's- more of a two way street thing than ya think, though." Milla supposed… "Just- that whole exchange pushed the right buttons. Y'know?"

Honami had her lips pursed, her cheeks slightly red. "...How strange. I- I suppose I could see that. I've wondered about romance, myself…"

Peter began to smile. "...I could push _yer_ buttons, if ya know what I mean."

"I'll make sure you never walk again." Honami decided.

Peter took a deep breath, nodding. "Okay. Sorry."

Finger raised, Henry spoke up. "No, no. You gotta _kiss her,_ you idiot."

"Don't you fucking dare." Honami glared at Peter. "Don't. No."

...Milla grinned big amidst the silence. _'Well, I think she oughta fit right in. Still- the way she talked about me… fuckin' weird. Somethin's on the tip a' my brain, but I dunno what…'_

'_It's not like Kiyoko would give a shit about what I'd be doin' on my down time, so I got nothin'. Maybe she was hired by my parents to see what I was up to, or the Hakurei big boys. Ooh, maybe she's Kiyoko's spy!'_

"So…" Mamako was wise. "How long have you been at the complex?"

Honami blinked. "...The- complex?" She seemed to regain the sedate raspiness to her voice. "What's that?"

'_Uh oh.'_ Milla felt that strange instinct again. _'Somethin' ain't right here!'_

Mamako looked smug, yet kind. "...It's where you are right now. Did you not know?"

"Oh! Right!" Honami grinned sheepishly. "Um. Yes. I knew that."

"Did you happen to know Milla?" Mamako didn't let this detail slip. "She asked you before, but you didn't answer."

"Wh- why would I?" Honami pouted, her cheeks reddening. "...Maybe I've seen her around town, before. Yes."

'_...Yeah. Who the fuck is she?'_

Milla began to drink from her glass of water, eyes narrowed in a cute way...

Mamako still looked as suspect as Milla. Henry seemed puzzled by the line of questioning, and Peter-

He wrapped an arm around Honami, and twisted her towards himself. "Hmm!?" Honami's body seemed to tense.

Peter thrust his face into hers, and kissed her. Honami's green eyes widened in shock. "Mm- _mmh!?"_

Milla pursed her lips, as Peter hugged onto her right, and tried to smear his face against hers. _"Nnh- mmhn!"_ Honami struggled with her arms, but couldn't resist his grip.

Then, the light around her seemed to warp to a circular ripple.

_WOOSH._ A blue-white barrier projected out from herself, sending Peter flying back. _"Wgh- ooah-"_

_THUMP!_ He rolled over the right arm of the couch, and into the pit of despair between the two couch edges and the room corner they hid. _"Fhuck!"_ He ended up on his shoulders, trapped there.

Honami stood on the couch. With a flare of light, she held a wood bokken with both arms. "That was my _first kiss!_ You _demented- fucking- moron!"_

Milla spat out her water all over the coffee table. _"Pftuu~!"_

_THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!_ Holding her bokken like a plunger, Honami stabbed it down into the crevice between the walls and the two couches, poking Peter in unhealthy ways. _"Wgh- ow ow ow- stop stop! Stop- agh!"_

Milla's heart leapt, as she stood up and held out a palm. _"Dispel!"_

_fwish._ A circle of gold light loosely lit up before Honami.

_crack._ It shattered quietly and gently, and-

Milla knew who this was for certain. _'What…!'_

Her eyes were revealed to be brown, and her face regained features Milla recognized.

She could feel the jig was up. Reaching up, Honami took her blue cloth hat off.

Her long, complicated black hairdo went with it, revealing that the only real portion was the length along her back itself, and her traditional hime-cut- bangs shorter than the wig had implied.

_Fwish!_ With another pull of her arm, she cast off her big blue-red kimono, revealing her Hakurei kimono beneath.

Milla stood, pushing aside the coffee table and looking Kiyoko in the eyes. _"What!?"_

Glaring, Kiyoko centered her gaze on Milla, and lunged from the couch.

_WOOSH!_ Milla uneasily leaned out of the way of a hellish horizontal swing, her brown hair billowing from the massive missed attack. _"Wh- woah!"_

Now on the floor, halfway across the room from Milla and the two couches, Kiyoko swung back around to leer at her. "Of _course_ your new friends would be so licentious. All it took was alike nationality- for you to start valuing perversion, hmm!?"

Mouth open, Milla stepped away from the couches to face off with her. "Where the fuck'd _you_ come from!?"

"Do you have anything to say about this!?" Kiyoko pointed to Milla's side, to imply Henry and the others.

...Milla nodded. "Yeah. I think you oughta get laid!"

Kiyoko's stare hardened.

Grinning, Milla held up her hands. "Look, while the village is _full_ of a buncha pricks who dunno how ta have a real romance, it don't mean we can't get our rocks off once in awhile-"

"Is nothing sacred, to you!?" Kiyoko yelled back. "What will you tell your lover, one day!? If- if you were of my clan, and your family found out- your life would be over!"

Milla brought her arms behind her own head. "Good thing I ain't a _Hackuray _then, ze. An' no wonder all your dudes are rapists! Does anyone actually know shit _about_ sex, 'side from the dudes who molest westerners?"

"...Yes. We _do."_ Kiyoko affirmed.

Folding her arms, Milla nodded. "Alright. You're wit' the guy you love, an' ya got married an' all, and he's got ya in his futon, and yer heart's beatin' hard. Ya followin' me?"

"...Ye- yes?"

"Cool." Milla grinned. "Alright, so. First: what sex position do ya think ya'd be down for?"

...Kiyoko glared. "Is- is this a trick question?"

"Doggystyle. Missionary. That uh, one where ya drape your leg over behind his neck. Mating press."

"...Ma- Mating press." Kiyoko guessed.

Milla jerked her head back. "Re- really? ...You know what that _is,_ right?"

"Of- of course." Kiyoko gave a confident nod, as her face grew redder. "It's-... the ma- mating position."

Milla had a naughty idea. "...Okay. How about I put _you_ in the mating press, then? An' we'll see how much ya like it."

"Wh- why? I- I know what it is-"

"I dunno, y'could be _lying,_ ze!" Milla insisted. "Alright, put yer arms up-"

Mamako walked up between them, smiling. They both paused, cringing involuntarily…

"The mating press is the position where you lie on your back, and your lover keeps your legs folded back towards your head, almost hugging you." She threw Kiyoko a metaphorical bone, by actually explaining it for her. "It's to allow them to reach as deep as possible into your maidenly place, to love you thoroughly. Girls are quite often made silly, from this posture."

Kiyoko's mouth hung open, her face red.

Milla winked. "He- hey, Kinky-chan. You know what a _strap-on_ is?"

"You- you know what? That's enough." Kiyoko brought her bokken up. "I'm just gonna rough you up and go home. I- I came to teach you a lesson in screwing with me."

"Ooh? In _screwing_ wit' ya?" Milla leered at her. "Hey, Kinky… if _I_ win, how's about you let me mating press ya…!?"

Kiyoko's glare grew more intense. "I'll shove my sword up your _ass!"_

"Pft- hehahaha!" Milla got a kick out of that. "I call ya Kinky-chan fer a reason!"

Henry sat pensively at the couch still, observing with no small amount of both confusion and interest…

"Additionally…" Mamako gave Kiyoko a plain look. "Are you-... who are you?"

Kiyoko gave Mamako a flat stare. "No one you need to know."

"She's the Hakurei heir." Henry recognized her. "Obviously. She's not going to just _tell us_ that if we ask."

"Alright!" Milla drew her broom from behind her back. "Let's do this shit! Kiyoko-_chan!"_

Kiyoko sharply took in air, and reeled her bokken back.

_WOOSH!_ Then, she swung forward, sliding on her sandals. _"Demon Decapitation!"_

Before the blow could land, Milla dropped onto her own back, spinning three-sixty on the floor with her limbs splayed out, magic whirling in a disc around her form. _"He~yahahah!"_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

In the end, they were both too spent to do anything after that.

"...I'm amazed she still has the energy to _walk_ after that." Henry noted. Kiyoko had fled once they were both badly beaten up, although her physical training and healing magic helped her keep going a lot more than Milla's lack of self-preservative arts did.

On that note, Henry was carrying Milla back to her room.

"I wanna… blow her boobs off…" Milla mumbled, hardly able to keep her eyes open. She'd accidentally destroyed her clothes five times during the fight, so now she was wearing a big brown duster, and neon green pants.

'_Clothes beam… s'a real useful spell! What the fuck'm I wearing…?'_ She'd cast _clothes_ on herself simply to avoid being naked. Kiyoko wasn't so lucky.

"Maybe don't." Henry didn't want to find out how that'd go down. "...I hadn't known you and the heir were _that_ close to one another."

"Nngh. We ain't _close…"_ Milla lied, in essence. "Kinky's- a whore…"

He didn't comment, letting her save her breath.

_shoof._ The stone door to her messy room slid up into the ceiling, and he browsed inside with her in his arms.

"...You could _honestly_ afford to clean this place up." His brows were furrowed at the disarray. "Why leave all your notes _everywhere._ Isn't this a fire hazard?"

"Place is made outta _stone."_ Milla argued. "Shaddap."

_Creak._ He plopped her onto her bed. It was a variable blast zone which he _wasn't_ about to take the time to analyze.

"Nn- nnh…" Her eyes instantly grew heavier. "Fuck-... fuck…" She seemed to rebel against sleepiness itself, but was quickly losing.

'_How'm I-... so damn tired…'_

In truth, today, she'd expected a little more shock from the regulars she spoke with, about the whole 'Hakurei heir' situation, but everyone seemed only mildly surprised.

'_I- I guess it figures. After all, they hired me here 'cause the heir- 'cause Kiyoko and I had that big first pissin' contest…'_

Now, no matter how many times they iterated it, it continued to be a draw or narrow victory in favor of one or the other. Just whenever Milla thought she had an edge, Kiyoko would catch up with just instinct, and even without focusing, Milla could keep level with Kiyoko in turn.

'_Fuckin'... ugh.'_

Barely able to keep one eye open, she grinned at Henry. "...Y- y'd think one a' you would've helped, back there…"

Henry snorted. "Mamako _did._ The heir knocked her out instantly. She didn't stand a chance. I was too busy watching. Peter knew better."

"...Wow." Milla snorted. "You clowns- always that weak…? Mama knows _fi- thunder._ Thunder's like… _the_ element of deadly shit..."

"Not against the heir it isn't, apparently." Henry shook his head. "You both have… gone to a whole other level of force. Didn't you notice? You both blew up those two other _entire booths_ of couches and tables. Literally vanquished in the crossfire."

...Milla stared up at the ceiling, gaining a brief surge of wakefulness- one that was sure _not_ to last long.

"Why the hell'd you bring me back _here_, anyway…?" Milla thought it odd. "Thought for sure I was just-... fucked."

'_At best, I'd've just woken up on the temple-place floor. At worst, I dunno…'_

Henry snorted. "What kind of person do you take me for? ...You might not accept me as your boyfriend, _but…_ you know, I don't mind, like, being _kind."_

"...Aah." Milla let her eyes drift shut, for a long moment. "All that, fer a scumbag like me…? Damn. Y'must be desperate, ze..."

"Pft." Grinning, he shook his head. "You're a _lot_ softer than you make yourself out to be."

"Wh-" Milla blinked. She'd told Kiyoko something similar, all those months ago. "Like _you'd_ fuckin' know."

"...I think I _do."_

Milla snorted.

'_Somehow, this creaky ass bed… feels good…'_

Sleep claimed her fairly promptly.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

_KAKLANK! "Hrr- rua~h!"_ A Hakurei samurai went bouncing down the road on his limbs, his armor leaving dents in the dirt road.

_CLACK!_ A different samurai leapt before Kiyoko to defend her from an oncoming, cast-iron patio chair sent hurtling through the aether. _"Sh- shit!"_

All Kiyoko wanted was some vanilla ice cream. That was literally all she wanted. She thought the body guards were an unnecessary, strange precaution. She was wrong.

Before her, Milla floated in the air as a green-blue specter, her legs ghostly. Cast-iron patio furniture made a revolving, atom-like shield around herself, as she ominously hovered closer. _"Hehahaha~h! _Let's _do this, Kinky-cha~n!"_

"Not on _my watch!"_ The nearby samurai captain roared, reeling his katana overhead. _"Oni Skull Cataclysm-"_

"_Scramble Ray!"_ Milla flourished all her limbs out.

_FWISHTINGTINGTING!_ A shotgun spread of prismatic, clumpy and stringy lasers messily splayed from Milla's body.

_Thunk- pap- thunkunk- clunk!_ They bounded against the man's armor, electric energy pulsing through it, light scrambling all around him from each impact. _"Brh- bu- nnh-"_

_THUNK! _Then, a chair came from the beyond, and sent him twirling away with a fierce impact to his chest. _"Hrra~gh!"_

"_Cautionary Barrier!"_ Kiyoko roared, four talismans flying from her kimono's sleeves. They made a plane in the air before herself-

_TI~NG!_ The gold-white barrier stopped a whole table from clotheslining her with its flat.

"I- I have to be back at my lessons in _an hour!"_ Kiyoko roared. "I-"

"Ya think I _give a shit!?"_

_WOOSH._ A chair came in wide, arcing past Kiyoko's barrier.

_CLACK!_ Kiyoko deflected the oncoming metal projectile with her bokken. _"Rrgh!"_ It sent her skidding away from the barrier, however.

"Yer 'bouta get ya _head handed to ya!_ Yer teach's gonna be like, 'how much dick ya suck'!? 'Cause you look-... uh..." Milla wasn't sure how to follow up, since she was just kind of stringing insults together. "Ya look all _sucked out!"_

Kiyoko's brows furrowed only very slightly, noticing how weakly thought-out the insult was.

"I- I mean, the idea's _technically_ there, innit?" Milla defended her wordplay. "Y'know what, _fuck_ you."

Sometimes, in moments like these, Kiyoko almost forgot what they were fighting about.

She reminded herself. Milla would force her selfish, close-minded and non-contextual way of life down her own throat. The only way to persevere would to be to shove her own way of life down Milla's in turn.

"I'm not changing the path I'm taking." Kiyoko announced. "I'll exorcise you- and get my _fucking_ ice cream!"

"_Lady Hakurei!"_ Then, the voices of additional maidens were heard.

A brown-haired, younger girl came up to Kiyoko's side. "Are you hurt!? There's- a youkai!" She pointed at Milla, as if it weren't obvious.

Along Kiyoko's right, a woman she vaguely recognized came up. She was Nahoko, a black-haired, somewhat spooky Aoyama-family shrine maiden. They'd clashed a few months ago; not that Nahoko would recognize Kiyoko from her days of vandalism.

Nahoko had yin-yang needles between each finger, and she gave Milla a deathly glare. _"You…"_ She remembered Milla from before.

Kiyoko's gaze was slightly drained. These women stood no chance.

_WOO- WOO- WOOSH!_ Furniture flung out at them, roaring at breakneck speeds.

_THINK!_ A chair bopped the young Hakurei maiden in the head, sending her flying away. _"Eee~!"_ That was _probably_ a concussion.

_Fwish!_ Nahoko slid around the chair that came straight for her own forehead. _"Heh-"_

"_Electro-Ball!"_ Milla tossed a bag of marbles underhand.

_FWII~SH!_ They zipped towards Nahoko like rain, drawing a beautiful, blue-yellow cascade of electricity in the air.

_ZAZAZAZAP!_ When they caught her, Nahoko was tased into delirium. _"Eheyahuha- buhuhuu-"_

_thud._ She collapsed onto her side immediately.

'_Heheheh. I'm so damn powerful- passin' bodyguards an' patrols ain't even a candle to my flame! Now-'_

"_Thunder Thrust!"_ Kiyoko's yell was heard.

In the air before Milla, Kiyoko was there, past the electron shell-like shield of furniture.

_WHUNK._ Her bokken was thrust right into Milla's gut.

"_Uhu~h-"_ Milla gasped out all her saliva.

Kiyoko had her by the collar. "Say _goodbye!"_

Swinging around in the air, Kiyoko took herself and Milla upside-down, and flung Milla right at the floor.

_WHAM!_ Milla met the dirt back-first. "Angh- nnh!"

'_How'd she apply so much force ta an aerial toss…!? Kinky- them arms ain't human…'_

Bloodsport moments like these were almost a bi-daily occurrence for the two. Even when Kiyoko didn't leave the castle, Milla would infrequently bust in just to annoy her.

Kiyoko had also quickly learned that assaulting Milla back at her 'home' of sorts was far more trouble than it was really worth. It didn't stop Milla from coming back the next day in full force, even if she was covered in bandages and bruises.

"Ya-... ya know…" Milla spoke up from the floor. "We're- nearly seventeen... an' yer _still_ yellin' out attack names like we're both kids."

Landing from above, Kiyoko righted her posture, frowning down at Milla. "You do it too. Hypocrite."

"I- I got _new spells-_ all the time." Milla expressed, sitting up. "An' the psychological effect's part of it. All yellin' a sword skill does it make it take longer ta come out, and now everyone's ready for it!"

"Funny." Kiyoko's frown deepened. "I could say the exact same. _Thunder Thrust_ comes out nearly instantly, so the announcement adds to the surprise on impact."

...Milla looked skeptical. "Eeh. Against a youkai, maybe not."

Kiyoko snorted. "Good thing I'm not fighting a youkai."

"I mean-" Milla began to stand up again, slowly… "Nnh. It's just- it's so corny! I _especially_ don't imagine it comin' from you."

Kiyoko didn't seem to care about the teasing. "Would you rather I surprise you, then?"

'_...Now that I think of it, she didn't do much skill announcin' back when she first kicked my ass.'_

"Yeah." Milla inhaled, her green locks blowing. A breeze had pushed through the village. "I would-"

_WOOSH._ An arrow flew through Milla's hair, and she froze. Though she wouldn't be harmed- as this wasn't her real body, and a living ghost couldn't truly die- it was still a shock.

Her and Kiyoko flicked their gaze to a single samurai in unison.

He was a black-haired man, clad in full armor, with a magic bow. Its arrows gleamed in the sunlight, and he bore his teeth at Milla. _"Youkai._ It is awfully self-assured of you, to-"

A leg came from Milla's ghostly lower half, her left boot stomping down on the ground.

_KRI~NG!_ From the ground under the samurai, a glacial greatsword parted the earth, erupting into the air and gleaming a brilliant gold under the sunlight.

"_Rrgh-"_ The samurai stumbled around side of it, balance slightly betrayed. His armor spared him from the incision that a massive, sharp ice slab could inflict.

_KRACK- SPLAA~SH!_ That's when a massive glob of water struck him dead-on, enveloping his whole body-

_FWASH._ Milla froze it, trapping him. _"Mmrh- mmgh!"_ He was only half-way submerged by the liquid, so when it froze, he wasn't completely suffocated. Slowly, he tipped over, now too top-heavy to stand...

"Hehe~y! Yeah!" Milla held an imaginary camera box with her hands, pretending to reel it. "Smile fer the camera!"

_thud._ The samurai fell onto his ass, but-

_KR- KRACK._ He began to break the ice with his gauntlet-clad hands. _"Rhhgh!"_

"That frostbite's great on the beard!" Milla gave him an 'okay' sign. "Also…"

_WOOSH._ The previously fired arrow whizzed through the air, past Milla's head again. She had shot it back with telekinetic power.

The samurai looked up in time to see it.

_CRACK- SHUNK!_ It pierced his armor with full velocity, sending him down again. _"Ruh- nngh…"_ Red bled through his already black-red armor. It was difficult to notice compared to the red accents, even if it was shades darker.

'_I wonder-'_ Milla looked to the left-

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko's bokken met Milla's face, on the bridge of her nose. _"Ghk!?"_

_THUNK- CRUNCH._ Then, something met Milla in the gut hard enough for her body to crumple.

'_Ooh- here we go!'_

_TING- TING- TING- TING!_ Milla thrust her palm out as she rolled back in the air. A half-sphere of uneven, hexagonal barriers flared to life, stopping four near-simultaneous bokken strokes.

The ice cream store had no one at the counter anymore, the clerk having grown wise long ago.

Righting in the air from her backward roll, Milla drifted before the store's front counter—

'_Rampage Blade!'_ Milla announced a spell's name in her head- taking almost deliberate care _not_ to yell it out.

She hadn't argued this, as she'd understood it better than she could share it with Kiyoko, but she had a reason to yell attack names. For a mage, the visualization and routine could help with casting.

Milla floated higher into the air, swinging her magic blade as Kiyoko came down. Kiyoko swung her own bokken vertical at the same time.

_WOO- WOOSH!_ They missed one another, both intentionally avoiding one another's swings.

Milla spun in the air, stroking her 'rampage blade' like it were made of air-

_KABOOM!_ It met Kiyoko's arm, and exploded. _"Rrh- nnn~!"_ Blood and cloth flared into the air, her off-arm crumpling from the stick of pure violence.

_Thud!_ Bouncing off the floor, rolling across the main street, Kiyoko focused her mind.

"_Hee~!"_ Milla screeched, flipping forward through the air, bringing her violent sword overhead to slap it back down-

_KRAKA- KABOOM!_ As Kiyoko's arm shook, regenerating the skin and muscle lost, she used both arms to parry the downward stroke of Milla's flaming rampage blade.

'_Aa-'_ Milla's mind paused. Feeling recoil against her otherwise weightless blade was immensely jarring.

In an effort to keep going, she clumsily punched her left arm- her sword arm- back down.

_CLACK- KABOOM!_ After blocking the strikes, Kiyoko's bokken was charred black from the blasts. Yet prismatic light still shimmered along it, detailing its magical reinforcement.

Then, Kiyoko saw how Milla stroked the blade overhead like a baton. She was going to arc it down impossibly, in a way no real sword could be wielded. It was like she was swinging around foam.

Milla's teeth were bared. _'And-'_ In another half-second, she'd stroke it straight across Kiyoko's chest. Her dream of blowing Kiyoko's boobs off would come true.

Something strange happened. Kiyoko saw how Milla had changed the rampage blade into her right hand, in an attempt to mix things up.

_THUMP._ Kiyoko jabbed her bokken into Milla's throat.

Milla blinked owlishly, her vision unfocusing for a moment. "Kh- _haa-"_

The way she fell backwards, recoiling, was also seen in Kiyoko's mental eye.

Kiyoko ran her bokken alongside Milla's right wrist, weaving it over and under the forearm and to the right of Milla's bicep. It extended past the back of Milla's neck, and essentially bound her whole blade arm.

Like this, Milla's blade arm was forced into keeping extended.

Kiyoko curved her own blade arm's wrist down and right, then up, making a crescent that twisted Milla's arm.

Milla's whole upper body was tilted forward. _"Wh- whah-"_

_Shink!_ Kiyoko ripped the whole bokken back. It slit the side of Milla's neck and twisted her arm with the pull, sending her sprawling into a forward flip.

'_What the fuck even just-'_

_CRACK!_ In an instant, as Milla coasted for the floor, the bokken came down on her face, alight with earthy, brown-white energy.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Milla plainly strolled down the road she used to live on.

"Aa~h…" She let out a breath. She was here in her living spirit form, inviting trouble for target practice. Not that any human would feel like contesting a youkai, especially not here.

'_Wonder where I should pop outta next…'_

Kiyoko didn't typically roam these back roads for any reason, which just meant Milla had to be _especially_ aware if she _did._ To keep up the absolute, inane mystery of her thought process for this sort of thing.

'_She's learnin' new sword arts quick. At this rate, I could cast Cavitation Beam on her and she'd somehow pull through to run away.'_ ...Not that Milla _would._ She didn't hate her friend _to death,_ certainly.

The new sword arts Kiyoko was learning were unlike her training. They weren't efficient, single slashes or overwhelming, high-speed katana swings; they were unusual, creative and surprising.

'_At the end of that last fight, she like, strung up my arm with her blade, slit my throat- as well as you can wit' a bokken- and sent me flying all at the same time. Not entirely practical 'cause of the set up, but holy shit…!'_

Yet, Milla felt it was strange. _'From how people hype up the oni, though, it's gonna take her a lot more than that. Might work with the tengu, but I dunno. Actually…'_

Milla snapped her fingers. _'One a' these days, I should find a way to get my spirit self up within territory a' them! Or, at least, the oni, who seem ta be the big boys everyone tells horror stories about. Not that there ain't a lot of fear goin' around about common youkai who can jump ya… which are a lot.'_

It probably wasn't helping, that she was just walking around town looking like either a ghost or a mage youkai.

'_Gotta say, lotta the Hakurei samurai around the village ain't actually hot shit. They got a handful of personal techniques, and some real good armor, but otherwise… hmmh. They're probably not meant to one-on-one mages, really. The biggest threat's the oni right now, after all.'_

'_I wonder if oni have huge dicks, or if that's just something people assumed!'_

The common fear of every youkai was simple: the Hakurei talisman. It'd take hundreds of these to reduce an oni to a human's strength, but for the humanoid forest youkai, it might take ten or less.

Wisps could be dispelled with one. Anything deception-based could be dispelled with one, or other means. Some greater plants in the woods might take hundreds themselves, but many of those cataclysmic youkai were banished in the capturing of this land.

'_As for me? Mmh…'_

Milla looked backwards.

_Fwip._ She caught a Hakurei talisman meant for the back of her head, between two fingers.

She smiled slowly, exposing her teeth, as the holy talisman burned gold, and then blue between her fingers.

'_It took awhile. For some time, Kinky was playin' nice, or maybe was just too unobservant. She didn't think ta use 'em to seal off my spirit form.'_

'_Then, one day, couple weeks ago, some no-name maiden slaps a talisman on me one day and I turn ta butter. Next thing ya know, Kinky just slaps one talisman on me, and I become a joke.'_

'_I see I've finally cracked it. Maybe this is what makes bigger youkai take hundreds ta knock down.'_

Not that she was spending _a while_ 'cracking' it. But, it took a week or so to think up some good preventative measures.

A sufficiently dark energy could overwhelm a talisman, and they could be destroyed by elemental means. Particularly spiritual or dense existences then could defy the Hakurei god's blessing imbued within these talismans.

'_Myself? Well, my existence ain't precisely youkai as it is, and only inner-palace Hakurei can instantly tell I'm a youkai by… uh, smell, or whatever they use.'_

'_My green hair don't count! I could just hide that if I actually gave a toss!'_

"Mmm?" Milla tilted her head, staring back, as the talisman in her hands burned.

Sauntering forward, a brown-haired man solemnly held two messy handfuls of talismans. He was a Hakurei priest, gaze hard and level as he met Milla's across the empty road.

As an overcast set in, a cool winter breeze made both of their clothes flow amidst the air colder than water.

"Oh. S'you." Milla spoke on impulse. This was the brown-haired man who frequently bugged her, back when she lived here.

He was only somewhat on her mind, for the duration of her absence from this road. _'One of the many only-sorta-somebodies I lost contact with.'_

Taking in a breath, he frowned harder. "...Camilla?"

Milla snorted. "...What?" She would rather no rumors spread that'd color her actual self negatively. "What'd you say?"

He paused awkwardly, unsure if he understood her. "Camilla. Your name. That's your name, right?"

Milla flicked her gaze up. "...Doesn't ring a bell."

"That's funny." He huffed, and nodded. He looked tense. "You look a lot like her."

Milla didn't say anything to that.

"What is your business here?" He treated her like an intruding youkai herein. "I know this is just about the edge of the village… but youkai aren't welcome here."

'_If this guy was half the samurai the other fops are, he'd just be attackin' me. I mean, guess he did wit' that talisman, but…'_

"Oh, yeah?" Milla had a thought. "What's your name?" He'd probably think the actual Milla would remember him.

In actuality? _'I, uh, actually forgot! Eheh…!'_

"Akinari." He defined himself. "I'm the exterminator that will bring peace to this village."

"Mmm. 'Kay." Milla somehow doubted that. "See ya." She turned around, having no real business with him.

"Never turn your back on your opponent!" He grinned, and threw his arm.

_swish._ As a barrage of talismans made for Milla, a crescent of wind took them away.

Akinari blinked. He looked down, where the ground was unstable-

_CRACK- BAMBAM!_ The earth itself opened up, the soil path beneath him clapping up onto him from either side, trapping him. "Uu- ow- _ow-"_

'_Learned that from a plant youkai!'_

Milla's voice came from behind him, as she strolled off. "You're so pathetic."

'_These Hakurei idiots. Even with me runnin' around the village, whompin' the heir and causin' general unrest, shit ain't changing. Dudes still own big dumbass harems, people still have huge difficulty finding themselves, and really…_

'_Even looking down at these people from above is stressful. I don't want anything to do with this village. I think Kinky's gonna be damn dissappointed, at the end of all of this.'_

She paused. Glaring suddenly, she looked back at Akinari, where she trapped him a hundred or so meters away.

The thoughts would recur now and again. _'Even though me and Kinky are gettin' by with just sparrin' consistently… until things really move along, who knows how shit's gonna end up? Years from now?'_

It wasn't like her to think into the _really_ long term, and in essence, she still wasn't. _''Cause really, who can say what freaking… ten years from now will hold? What if her energy runs out? What if she quickly realizes life ain't a fuckin' bundle a' roses, when she's got her arms full with retarded people?'_

'_I like keepin' my options open, even if it means a little bit 'a quick reflexes to avoid other people dickin' me over. Kinky, though… she thinks she's got it all planned for the rest of her life. She's not even fuckin' twenty yet, for fuck's sake.'_

Akinari glared at her from across the hundred meters, as she stood at the edge of a road and some grass, way ahead.

"Fuckboy." Milla was now next to him, on his left. Akinari tensed up, pausing at her sudden presence. "Do you think the people of this town're worth helping?"

Akinari blinked. Then, he glared. "Of- of course…"

"What if you ruled it?"

...He frowned hard. "Is- is this an offer?"

"Sure." Milla didn't care. "If you ruled it, how would you put up with it?"

"Put up with it…?" He found the turn of phrase awkward. "I'd… like ta _think_ I'd undo all the bad. I'm not a military genius, so… I'd do my best against the youkai, and I- I hope I'd inspire others to do the same."

'_...Don't think I'll be gettin' much outta this dude.'_

Milla could've said many things to him. She could've argued the pedantics of it: the variable futility in trying, the benefits of helping versus not helping, and what role he'd actually play, both as he is now or as a ruler.

But, she also really didn't care. There were other villagers with the same zeal, the same generic care for the village, be it differentiated only by how they word it.

'_If I got personal with every branch of every family tree… it'd be as futile as mappin' out a whole damn forest, branch by branch. Forests might be static, but they can change quick, especially with youkai around leapin' off trees and shit.'_

'_...That's a more fittin' analogy than I thought. Family trees are that, ze.'_

'_No point in me still talkin' to this loser.'_

_shoof._ The mounds of soil which held Akinari in place crumbled. He inhaled, eyes widening as it became easy to breathe again.

"Get out of here." Milla waved him off. "See how few people're on the road? I came here ta be alone, not fuck around. Now fuck off."

This edge of the village had particularly low traffic at midday. _'Also, they see me walkin' around, so no one's gonna step foot outside. Wait…'_

"No one's going outside _because_ of you." Akinari turned to face her. "Who would? If you don't leave, it's not just going to be _me_ dealing with you."

"Uh hu~h." Milla didn't care. "Be glad you're not dead. If I looked at ya funny, I'd take your life."

...Frowning again, Akinari looked around, before picking an alley to retreat towards.

'_I just wanna think. I wanna be alone. Next time this village sends someone my way, they better be interesting.'_

If there was one thing Milla hated, it was being bored. At the same time, she took calm solace in isolation. It comforted and recharged her.

'_Maybe I should go sit on a bench. Kick my legs back, and wait for some samurai to roll by, talismans wit' my name on 'em.'_

On this white, wintry day, she just wanted to cast her gaze over the village from atop the Hakurei Castle, and behold the visual.

'_Maybe I oughta go there and do that.'_

As she made for a bench, some houses down from her former home, she noticed someone walking to confront her.

It was her mother. She had short, brown hair, and a tired face that conveyed her lack of meaningful stimulation over these past years.

'_...Well, fuck me.'_ Milla supposed she asked for this. _'Pleasant surprise, ah? Wonder what she's got to say. She ain't got a reason to waltz up to a youkai like it's no problem.'_

Standing before the bench, Milla eyed her down.

Coming up to her, she stood before the bench as Milla was, gaze intent on Milla's face. _'Don't tell me…'_

"Camilla." The green hair, green eyes and blue robe did nothing to obscure her to her mother. "What are you _doing?"_

Milla furrowed her brows. "...What's it _look_ like?"

Anna De Luca- or now Anna Mawatari, by Milla's impulse surname decision- was her mother. _'Eheh. Forgot they'd have to suddenly get the switch, too. They can suck it up.'_

Anna was all frowns, today. Milla considered that typical. "It looks like you're abusing your gift. _Our_ gift."

This was the first Milla heard of something like this. "Ha~h? An' how'm I doin' that? What, you want me to send ya money?"

"Magic-" Anna paused, tracing her own thoughts. "Magic isn't supposed to be used- like… like how you're using it."

...At that notion, Milla threw on a sleazy grin, and began to quietly chuckle. "Re- really…?"

"It's not a tool to hurt people. It's not a tool to defend yourself- cut a profit- or… or _anything_ like that." Anna looked desperate. "It's-... I- I didn't want to tell you how to live, Camilla. I didn't want to tell you how to follow your own magic. But… I can't take it. I can't take the disappointment."

Milla snorted. _'You hardly ever say a word edgewise to me. Big talk for someone who last had a conversation with me-... ah, shit, when did we last speak to one another? I don't even really remember. I hardly take her seriously as a person anymore, which kinda sucks 'cause she was cool when I was like, ten, but…'_

'_She's really grown to hate this Japan thing. I can tell. But, what I can't even tell is if she can read her own damn mana anymore.'_

"Come… back home." Anna looked cold, holding herself as she requested Milla to come back. "Your father is angry. You've… made a joke of our gift, with such blatant misuse. I know this land is strange and cruel- but… that's really no excuse. It's a reason you should've stood strong."

'_I dunno, but something about that response… it sorta pisses me off.'_

"We ain't in Europe anymore." Milla's response was plain. "All that fairy tale bullshit woulda flown great if we didn't live in fuckin'... a _war zone."_

Anna seemed to steel herself in response to Milla's casual, flippant response.

She shut her eyes, and seethed. "Milla…" Then, she reached behind herself.

A beautiful, worn oak staff was drawn, a rainbow-colored light glowing amidst the fiercely white-grey day on its tip. It was utterly mesmerizing; a texture and light unlike Milla had seen before.

'_What- the fuck is that?'_ A staff? Her mother had a staff?

"One day-" Anna's voice was slightly uneven. "One day, I planned to _give this_ to you. As my grandmother did me. The true gift of magic. One's personal dreams, hopes and intelligence; something so amazing that no one else in the world may witness it."

Voice firmer, Anna continued as she stared into the tip of her own staff. "Everything has gone wrong. This land, _you,_ your father-... "

Milla had a grin on her face. "Hoh? The fuck's that glowy staff? Also- the hell'd ya _want_ from me? Communication's a good foundation!"

"Magic was your escape from reality's cruelty." Anna declared. "As you went on your path, you would discover amazing secrets. Of yourself, of life… of the stars, and of thought. I- I can't explain to you, all the beauty I've seen. Even if I've lost it all now, for you-..."

Looking like she wanted to cry, Anna frowned at her. "All I wanted was for you to see it, too. We never should have left our old home. I took a chance that I shouldn't have."

"Huh." Milla nodded dully. "Coulda woulda shoulda."

Her sass just made Anna sadder. "God…"

Her staff's rainbow tip flared brighter. The light was practically bleeding into the air, the bench around them and their clothing bathed in prismatic brilliance.

"Your magic, Camilla," Anna began again. "Your magic was _yours._ And- in selling yourself to the Hakurei- to their _blind, selfish-..._ in- in doing that, you've let them mislead you. They're teaching you to be a _weapon-_ and that's _not_ what magic's about. It's not. Magic is made of dreams. It's made of _love,_ Camilla!"

"Mmh." Milla rolled an answer around in her mouth. "Mmm. Dunno. Love's just one emotion. The others do shit too, yaknow? An'-" She began to grin, too. "And, _love?_ What'm I gonna do, hug ya ta death?"

"But-" Anna couldn't convey her understanding. She knew Milla wouldn't get it, either. Not now, when she was so jaded. Any talk of dreams would be moot- the adventurous spectacle of the magician was gone.

"I've been studyin' shit the Hakurei don't want me to study." Milla sought to clarify, to correct some ideas her mother had come up with. "They can't stop me from doin' what I want, now. They had some useful spells an' shit, too. But I ain't lettin' them tell me where ta point my zap-stick just yet. I think they'll realize my ideas're a bit better than the shit they had scheduled."

'_And if they don't, I don't give a shit.'_

"So…" Anna's level gaze met Milla's. "You're a weapon, then. A money-maker."

"To defend myself, and my _own_ dreams?" Milla put her hands on her blue robe, shrugging too. "Hell yeah. With all the dumbasses around, in this _tiny little place,_ it's a no-brainer. It ain't pretty, but it's better than bein' snuffed out entirely."

She pointed her alloy, crescent-tipped staff at Anna. "But _you_ wouldn't agree. Ya've been lettin' the old man piss all over you. The Hakurei tell you to sit, so you _do,_ when you'd pro'lly be in _my_ shoes if you just sucked it up and broke a couple rules."

Somehow, Anna didn't look saddened or upset by this. She seemed to take some steps back, gaining a distant look.

Instinctively, Milla thought it was threatening. _'What's with the face. That look...'_

It was an intent expression, then becoming exasperated. "Talk about missing the point." Anna's remark was wistful.

Milla wondered if she'd somehow thrust her mother back some years. _'Sass ain't like her, not now.'_

"Allowing my magic to carry into this world was an error." Anna decided now. "I've been eating myself inside for… far, _too_, long."

She began to walk closer to Milla. As Anna invaded her personal space, Milla stepped back. "Yo- Mom, what's good?"

"Milla. Forgive me." Anna raised her staff. "If you're as an _Ikiryou_ right now, this is your spirit, right? Then… the process won't be changed too much."

Milla didn't say anything. Anna kept trying to walk up to her. "Milla. I'm going to take away your gift of magic."

...Milla grinned, and held her mouth open. "Yea~h? I _dunno _if that's how it works…"

"I was the one who gave it to you. Some magicians share mana capacity and genetics by blood, its ties becoming part of their spirits and souls.

"With our family, it is no different." Anna held up her staff. The rainbow light was bubbling up, an acidic sphere of light-distorting power building there. "However. We pass the gift of magic to the descendent who can dream, who can experience the fantasies which bring magic to its fullest potential. With the simple act of passing, we preserve our magic's brilliance and mysticism.

"It hasn't been done before. At least, I don't think. We've never _revoked_ the gift from a descendent or child. The gift is placed into the hands of children we know will go on to dream. If our sole child is not one, or if their child isn't one… the gift itself can wait generations, even after _my_ death."

She aimed the building, ultimate bubble at Milla. This wasn't how Anna thought she'd be explaining it to Milla, for sure.

Milla held her arms up, questioning. "What the hell's all this shit about _dreaming_ about, anyway? I mean, metaphorical hokey-pokies is fun and all, but if yer gonna be wavin' a stick at me, logic that actually _made some sense_ would be cool…!"

"I gave you this gift- in desperation, for your future. I loved you, Milla."

Milla snorted. "But not anymore, huh."

Anna froze, staff aimed at her daughter.

'_...Dumb bitch.'_ Milla was somewhat sour. _'I miss the old you. I miss the old dad, even if he could still be a real dumb bastard.'_

Anna glared. She was set on her decision now.

"I will lock your magic away again. Even if I must drag you kicking and screaming. Even if you are absorbed into the Hakurei as a thrall. Magic will find a way, in your descendant's descendants."

Milla shifted her body posture onto one leg, and tilted her head to the side. "Y'know, I can't help but feel all this big girl talk's a real scorched earth tactic. Like, can we _not_ do that, maybe? Maybe grab some... _pistachio ice cream _instead?"

The orb on the tip of her mother's staff became white, and then was gone. Anna's eyes were wild kaleidoscopes of rainbow light.

Having expected her to shoot, Milla jerked her body, as if to displace herself somewhere out of the range of a direct shot. But, no big blast ever came. _'The fuck'd she cast? Uh...'_

"_I will leave you with nothing."_

Then, Milla felt it. A huge magical signature.

'_What the fuck.'_

Milla leapt backwards over the bench behind herself-

_Wham!_ -which she accidentally tipped over, causing her to backflip as she began to float towards the magic woods. _'Fuck.'_

In the dreary day, a rainbow arched over the whole road on the edge of the Hakurei village.

Anna's heart pumped the hardest it did in her entire life; she didn't think this was going to be easy. She floated into the air herself, staff held in the air free of her arms, becoming a sliver of rainbow light.

"_Don't be afraid." _Anna could see, and _feel_ Milla's alarm. _"You may be clever, and wise. I'm cleverer, and wiser. I'll dispel and overwhelm every incantation of yours."_

Under the rainbow, Milla saw something that instilled an unfamiliar pit in her gut. Something she last felt before her argument with Kiyoko, something that made her briefly feel like she was at square one again.

From the air behind Anna, translucent masses of magic formed draconic heads in the air. Three European-styled dragons leered from the aether. One's maw crackled with electricity. The rightmost one breathed fire, and the leftmost one emitted foggy frost.

Milla couldn't deny, it was pretty scary. _'...Uuh. Maybe it's-... hmm. An illusion? But, that mana signature...'_

Milla thought she was the hot ticket the village was looking for. The element wheel-slinging magician who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty, going farther than all the other chucklefucks who dared to push mana around.

"Please..." Anna held out her right hand, for Milla to take it. Her left grasped her staff, which seemingly became a spear of rainbow greater in height than she was. The air around her was becoming brighter, as if she was about to light up the whole multi-hundred meter radius.

"Do as I say. Give up." Anna smiled like Milla remembered. "Lay down that shield of mana I see you clasping."

Milla nodded. "...Y'know. I can just _dispel_ this whole soul extension, _ikiryou-_thing, right?"

"I will find you." Anna rebuked. "To the north. I know the complex is there. I will be there in seconds. If I want, I could even take your life. But…"

'_Pft. Isn't that what I said to that loser I just threatened earlier…? Aw, man. Big fish, little fish situations, ze…'_

She inhaled, and stretched her limbs out. "If you wish it, I will drain you slow. Killing slow is how I defend myself, if it must be done."

This time, Milla nodded as if impressed. "...Y'know, maybe it'd sound cooler if ya said it like- _'killing slow is the way I conquer',_ or something."

Anna simply drifted there idly, for a few moments, as if to acknowledge _that_ Milla spoke, without giving her the dignity of a response.

'_Alright, game plan: try makin' my real body shoot her with a thin laser! I mean… she's really damn on-guard. I dunno the fuck those dragon head things're gonna do-'_

Anna spoke, through herself and all three draconic heads.

If the village wanted a weapon, ironically enough, Anna probably would have been the prime candidate. It was at this moment her repressed anger, over the past few decades, boiled over.

"_THE TORTURE TEST CAN WAIT NO LONGER"_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Beaming with nervous energy, Milla's green-haired figure darted through trees, deeper into the woods, as her main body did its work back at the magic complex. Dividing her attention was tough- and her main body experienced the adrenaline rushes given on the forest battlefield.

_KRAKA- KROOMKROOMKROOMKROOM!_ A lane of thunderbolts roared down the forest, trees exploding into flame.

_KRINGKRINGKRINGKRINGKRING!_ On the floor beneath Milla, a sea of churning ice rolled from the soil, consuming stumps and rocks and tilling the dirt.

"_With your first step-"_ The red dragon's head flared above the trees to Milla's right, _"you will BURN."_

_KRABOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!_ Milla's spirit self flashed back meters from where she was. A lane of explosions painted the air red, erupting from the ground and turning the forest trees into soot and atoms.

'_Yeah, uh, no illusions here. She ain't playin'! Let's put it that way!'_

"_You can't control- all the hate you have learned."_ Overhead, the blue dragon arched above the canopy upside-down, frost coating its phantasmal scales like water.

Milla thrust her staff overhead. Icicles white like air, nearly invisible, fell down with the intent of death. _"Rampage Blade!"_

_BOOM- KABOOM! BOOM!_ Milla cleaved the falling giga-icicles into nothing. They fell into the sea of fire and magma beneath herself, becoming electric mist.

'_Hoo- oh shit oh fuck-'_ A rock bigger than a man roared from the fire, thrown by a wind cast by the icicle rain and magma flow beneath.

_BOOM!_ It clotheslined Milla, leaving her spinning in the air. _'Oo~h- fuck, fuck that smarts-'_

As the icicles fell, and the electric mist rose, earth was tossed by wind on all angles, carried by flame.

Milla's eyes widened, as she avoided a speckling of water drops. The rocks burst into clumps of liquid in the air as they passed her, so the electricity could arch along them.

'_...None of this shit's non-elemental.'_ Milla noted. _'She's goin' fuckin' off the wall with elemental magic like I've never seen.'_

'_No way the village isn't seeing this. This is the biggest fuckfest that's happened in months. Mom can put legendary youkai to shame, holy fuck…'_

Killing slow would indeed be the way Anna conquered, Milla felt. All of these cataclysmic spells were unaimed. Raw, destructive environmental power left the woods around herself awash in such vibrant, life-eradicating ferocity that Milla found herself trapped inside.

It was a circlet of the steps of hell, represented by elements, with fire and brimstone being the bottom. Eventually, anyone who was anyone would falter under the unending doomsday of elements, reactions and annihilation. The meek would be vaporized instantly.

'_This magic was unseen to the world alright. What the fuck kinda shit was mom on…?'_

"_You will know the meaning of SUFFER."_

Milla inhaled. _'Very cool, mom.'_

The noise could not be described with letters. Lightning cracked into Milla's form, but as her spirit body had no heart, it could not be instantly summoned to death.

Rising heat kept her toasty, a layer of steam searing the flesh and staining her clothes with hellish, painful moisture that boiled away into more steam inside her outfit.

Milla's alloy staff boiled her skin, lightning and heat arcing through it. Her hands were frozen to its shaft- a choice by her mother, at some point. _'Not sure if that helps or hurts-'_

"_On your second step, you will invite and welcome death."_ Anna's rainbow-crested body dominated the air over the forest, the overcast drawn in fruity colors.

_KROOM! KROOM! KROOM!_ From the inferno beneath Milla, the three dragon heads erupted from soil and roots, drawing a spiral into the air together. Their elements fiercely formed a tornado, encapsulating Milla there.

'_Y'know. I'm rea~lly starting to get the feeling my mom was a sadist too.'_ Quipping was Milla's way of numbing her spirit self's pain.

As for an escape, Milla was hard-pressed. Those phantasmal dragons had fortitude that would take days of combat to whittle down; days Milla obviously didn't have. _'So, no go on the brute force.'_

'_But… since they're all fiercely elemental…'_

Milla watched the dragons whirl around. _'Worst one's the thunder fuck. It's conducted by the other two. Fire and ice on their own just make wind, though… and dunno 'bout you, but that's a better odd than bein' frozen or incinerated.'_

"_Pay homage to no god, but to the gift of the magician, with your last breath."_ Anna forebodingly warned her, voice echoing through the air around Milla.

'_Alright-...'_

Milla made for the edge of the blazing, hell-swept clearing. She was going to dash her body between the frost and fire dragons, as the only element they made between one another was wind and moderate temperatures.

"_One-woman Army!"_ As she roared for them, she yelled any spell that'd help her eat pain. She wasn't a defensive mage, which she now felt somewhat regretful over. _"Unstable Reaction!"_

_Fwi~sh!_ She unleashed marbles into the whipping air of the clearing, and they instantly all scattered out with amazing speed.

They all became white, undetailed clones of Milla, and all snapped to make a shell around her main spirit form.

Like a meteor, they met the windy hell between the two dragons.

Clones were bisected by wild winds left and right. Exploding globs of magic shot out from Milla to intercept the cutting currents, but their force was nothing to the frenzy of physical power that was a blade of wind.

"_Azure Wind!"_ Milla realized a combination in the middle of the unnatural wind wall.

_WOOSH!_ Uppercutting her left arm into the air as she went, a rising, wet tornado roared into the air. It was given weight by the water, safe between all the cutting wind, and fought the biting currents with its own force.

Milla escaped the elemental hell. _'Holy fuck! Hell yeah! Let's fuckin'-'_

"_Say goodbye to a life that you once knew-"_ Anna floated down from above, to directly confront her. Her form was wrapped in rainbows, only two piercing eyes visible on her silhouette.

Holding her staff like a cannon, she aimed it down at Milla's vague position. _"Along with every being who came before you."_

The light before Anna warped with such ferocity, it looked like reality itself was yielding.

Anna roared through her own emotions, conflicted and unwilling. _"MASTER SPARK!"_

At first, Milla avoided a pinprick of light. She saw the mana along it. It was the most mana she'd ever seen in her life.

'_Reflect wouldn't cut it. That's enough to break a barrier entirely.'_

'_Other elements? This is non-elemental. Her one non-elemental spell's her trump card, of course. Nothing could have the force to contest with this.'_

'_Dispel? Yeah, get the fuck outta here with that- if that worked I woulda dispelled the dragons before they even did anything.'_

Dodging might not be an option at this point, either. _'No way it ain't a total nuke.'_

'_If only I could just-... open a portal to catch the beam. If only I had a hammerspace bag. If only I had a way ta do fuckin' somethin' to it-'_

She wondered. _'Light diffuses the more surfaces it goes through. If it's a beam of rainbow, non-elemental light…'_

'_I can't set up against the beam itself- it's gonna actualize all at once. But, I can ride the edge of the beam. Or, you know, exist somewhere that ain't the damn center.'_

Milla descended into the inferno below. She called rocks to her form, summoned water, created light and dark panes in the air to shield herself, summoned a current of wind, and tried to hide amongst the fire.

Preparation time was over. Anna unleashed the Master Spark on the forest floor.

_VRRRRRRRRR~!_ The hum of magic could be heard from the Hakurei Castle in the distance.

The daily routine of everyone- those who hadn't stopped to observe the dragons included- took pause, beholding a rainbow spectacle which shined brighter than anything else.

A glorious rainbow star, over the woods. Its prismatic light bathed the village in a soothing rainbow, creating unnatural light that overwrote the cloudy day overcast.

'_That- did it.'_ Milla realized.

Back at the magic complex, her mother was painfully easy to observe, at the epicenter of a flickering prism star of ultimate energy in the midst of the sky, at the head of the beam of lovely annihilation.

Her spirit-self crumpled under rocks, boiled in water and brimstone, eyes shut as she quickly, almost painlessly began to be ripped apart by the all-consuming light.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Back at the magic complex, Milla herself shook, as she sipped from a mug to soothe her nerves. "...Aa~h. Th- thanks."

Henry was observing her shaky positioning of a strange, makeshift tool with idle caution and skepticism. "...I'm- starting to doubt this is just a _rainy day activity._ What _is that_ happening in the distance? Milla, what did you _do?"_

Inhaling, holding her breath, Milla aimed a repurposed matchlock, fit with a mess of reagants, lenses on the front, and mana amplification tools. Under no circumstance would this be worth the cost and waste of the parts being used.

'_Not unless you rea~lly want something dead.'_ ...Milla smiled slightly. _'Well. Never wanted something to stop this damn fast before. My hands-...'_ She steeled her nerves.

Her body stopped.

"I got an idea." Milla announced.

Henry snorted. "Re- really."

The light before the massively in-built gun began to ripple, in a similar vein to Anna's staff.

"_Maste~r…"_ Milla poured all her body's mana into the gun. She had one shot. _"SPAAAA~RK!"_

_Vrrr- VRRRRRR~!_ Powering all her mana into the weapon, a thin, blue-white beam stretched out towards the star.

...Slowly, it trickled out.

In the air ahead, the prismatic star dimmed, flickering out after the beam's impact.

Henry wasn't sure what he just watched.

"Nnh…" Milla let go of the gun, letting it slide over the rail and into the oblivion that was a two story drop off the complex. "Jackpot."

Henry snorted. "I-... did you just let all those lenses and reagents _fall?_ That was a joke, right? ...If you ask me, that's about the exact _opposite_ of a 'jackpot'."

Milla couldn't care, vacant and exhausted as she lied on the floor.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

In the woods, the rainbow staff bounced on the floor, its colors dimmed.

Anna dropped into a kneel, her limbs all shaking.

"I-..." Somehow, she was injured in her most critical moment. She couldn't see the floor she rested on.

"Damn-..." Anna seethed out her pain and misery. "I'm- ge- gettin' old…"

She flopped onto her stomach on the forest floor, cheek against the grainy, charred earth.

Failure. Anna had failed.

She laid there, her dreams dimmed. She couldn't revoke the gift of magic like this. She couldn't be hands-on with Milla, even just this once in her life.

In these years, she really had gotten complacent with the way life was. Was this _really_ the extent of her dreams, her power?

She had to take it back. She had to _make _Milla obey what she knew. She'd rather Milla had no magic than let her bleed its majesty into the public. Even if she had to make sacrifices to do that.

She looked along her body. Blood marked her staff, and the black forest floor around herself.

If she died here, that really would be good enough. She'd apologize to her friends and loved ones in the afterlife, and they would apologize to her.

It was the perfect excuse. Killed here, in some dim Japanese forest, hated by the cruel land around her.

Despite the pain, she laid her head down. If she fell asleep here, that'd surely be the end.

It was a lot easier to accept it.

"Wo~wie."

Milla's spirit form was back, clapping her hands. "Oughta take me to a diner, fer a _spell_ or two. Fer a moment there, you actually had me goin'."

'_Was the most magic I ever saw in my life. My body back home's outta mana almost. The fact she ain't dead from a blow like that is somethin'.'_

'_...Hmm.'_

"You might be a total _bonehead,"_ Milla kneeled before her bleeding-out mother, "but that'd make two of us."

'_Gonna be honest… I'm not sure what I wanna do from here.'_

She didn't quite know exactly what her mother idealized of her, or of life. _'This coulda been an outburst from stress, or it could've been… well, a lotta shit. Worst case scenario, she's just crazy and homicidal. I mean, wouldn't blame her, but since I'm the target, that'd suck.'_

From her pocket, Milla drew an elixir; a pricey alchemical brew which could sate- almost- all wounds and restore all of one's energy. _'Almost all, 'cause it ain't regrowin' yer legs, or bringin' ya back from the actual dead, let's just say.'_

Anna recognized it, as Milla held it down. When Anna feebly clasped for it, Milla slowly retracted it.

"Let's talk." Milla decided. "You all awake upstairs?"

"I'm- _khk-"_ Anna coughed up blood. She was dying. _"Cauh- kauff-"_

"Hold yer mouth open." Milla _still_ didn't know healing magic. Her mother didn't either, clearly.

'_Man, talk about a blind spot… damn it, Kinky was my tag team healin' machine. Why's healin' magic so damn complicated?'_

Anna did as Milla asked, holding her mouth open with a dead, shamed look on her face. Fresh blood stained her tongue, and her brown eyes were airy.

Milla dropped a trickle of healing elixir onto her tongue, before flicking the bottle back up.

Anna swallowed the glowing, golden-white fluid eagerly. "Mmh- nn-..."

"Y'might think I don't got a lot goin' on upstairs." Milla supposed. "...Ya could say the feeling's mutual. But, I'm also _adaptable,_ should we say. I can tell how you feel. I can tell, that _you've_ put perhaps _a lotta_ thought and effort into whatever it is you're holdin' close to yourself.

"I'm sure ya've seen some shit."

...Surveying the again gray sky above, Milla nodded with a strange level of tired comfiness, and looked down at her mother again.

"Yer what? Fifty? ...Shit changes hard in fifty years. Heh… I mean, look at me now. My shit's been flipped upside-down, all-around, an' back up again six ways ta Sunday, an' it all started three months ago.

"I'm sure you've done a lot of shit. Met some good friends. I'm sure you used to love dad. But…"

Milla crouched, almost to sit down. "That's-... that's all in the _past,_ mom. We're here now. If you hold a-" Milla thought how to word this. "If you never let go of the way things _were,_ yer never gonna find a way to be happy again."

Anna's tired eyes surveyed Milla's with a kind of worn intellect Milla recognized. Swallowing, Anna rasped out protest. "But-... it- it was all-... so beautiful. You'll- never know…"

Milla wasn't sure what to say to that, at first. What emotion to throw on, or how to react in a way to show her mother she understood.

"Well." Her gaze met the floor. "That's too bad. But, if it's so far gone already… I gotta ask. Who cares?"

Anna was too tired to look shocked, surprised or anything. She just looked more tired in response.

"I ain't sayin' that to be mean." Milla clarified. "If we spend all our time sittin' here makin' asses of ourselves, we ain't ever gonna be happy. The world ain't gonna serve us silver platters. All bein' passive and wallowin' in our own shit gets us is buried deeper down."

"You'll-... never understand…" Anna couldn't let it go. Her breath was labored, making it hard for her to talk. "While-... while I may have- misjudged you-..."

"You sure as hell did." Milla announced, frowning down. "Maybe if we didn't live in _hell,_ we'd have come to some kinda understanding. If we actually talked wit' each other, understood our shit, what we shared… tell me. Do ya know any of my friends? S'a trick question, 'cause ya _don't._

"You don't know who I am, or what I do. The fact I'm yer daughter means nothing. I might not know who you used to be either, but that don't really give either of us a right to bloody the other."

With two fingers, Milla casually, slowly twirled the elixir in the air idly, watching the life-charged fluid inside slosh about.

'_The decision's comin' up soon. Does mom live or die?'_

Anna contemplated that. Decades ago, she never thought she'd become such a neglectful mother. It wasn't what she planned, surely. She hadn't planned her family being dragged to Japan. She hadn't planned her love going so wrong, so easily. It was one of her self-acknowledged faults: she'd never known how to read people so competently. Not when she was younger.

That, and she wanted a family. If she waited for her dream man, she may have never found him. Her own mother was no magician- that was her grandmother. They didn't have the money to travel around, and their town was small. Anna's comfort was in her isolation.

Anna felt lightheaded, mind reeling, as she laid on the dirty, ash and soil clearing floor, considering how her life lead up to this moment. Her family, her dreams in her youth, friends who came and went over the years- some close, some gimmicky-...

"So… mom." Milla spoke up. "What would you like?"

Anna's reddening eyes met Milla's flat, almost frowning gaze.

"You want this elixir?" Milla tapped on it with her free hand. "...Or… would you prefer ta die here?"

Anna snorted. "...As- as if I'd- accept ta- bleeding out. If I wanted ta die- I'd ask ya to shoot me."

Milla hadn't _immediately_ thought of that, but she had to admit, her mother was forward thinking. "Well- I mean, I'd pro'lly _eventually_ decide ta- y'know, whatever." She supposed it'd be pointless to get indignant right now, of all times. "...So."

"I-..." Anna's anger built inside again.

She had lived her life passively, keeping herself secret and riding out life as it came and went. It was something so rigid, so set. It was a behavior ingrained in her mind; her comfort and security. It took a monumental effort to move the mountain that was the human psyche.

She began to push against the floor. "...Before- I give up on this shitty world…" She met Milla's gaze. "Maybe I got a few more things ta do."

Milla swallowed, and gave her a half-grin. "That so? Wouldn't include railin' me with lightning bolts, now would it?"

"No promises." Anna smiled back. "...How _else_ would you learn? You-... you'd like that, wouldn't you? Yeah. I think you would. Forgive me- if I'm bein' presumptuous- but…"

...Milla shrugged, and held the elixir down for her. "You better not let me down. Far as I'm concerned, _I'm_ the one takin' a dodgy chance here."

Anna grabbed it, with a shaky, pale hand. "Mm- mmh? If- you say so."

'_Honestly?'_

'_S'probably a good thing she blew up on me. If it was dad, the Hakurei pricks, or some random fucko in the village, she'd have her throat sliced for any count a' murders. Something like this was a long time in the making. Or, if she never blew up, who knows what the fuck'd happen to her inside.'_

'_I dunno where the hell this's gonna go, but… that's exactly why it's actually a real damn good outcome. Even if I regret it, I'm gonna come out richer.'_

'_Not in the pocket book, like mom assumed. In power, in knowledge.'_

'_Let's see Kinky try and one-up this shit.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

_Shoof._ Kiyoko cast aside one of the myriad sliding doors, into the audience hall of the Hakurei Castle.

Stepping up the leading hall's steps, she practically jogged to the second set of sliding doors. This leading hall, despite being in the castle's heart, protecting the access to the greater central spire, had sunlight seemingly bleeding in through the shoji on either side.

It was magic, Kiyoko knew. A simple holy spell, which had a remarkable effect on this hall's mood.

The halls of the Hakurei were an artificial paradise. Luxurious, rainbow lights awaited the royalty who lived in this majestic domain of holy mastery. Kiyoko had to admit, the halls could be pretty, if nothing else.

'_Often, other maidens sell it up to be some sort of new world standard. Much of those do-nothings have particularly boring or overtly social lives. I can't connect with them.'_

_Shoof._ Kiyoko was in the audience hall proper, now.

It was empty, naturally. There was no audience of any sort at the moment.

'_My parents sit in many thrones. Despite two or three thrones being placed upon most of the royal resting places, often only one gets used at a time per room. I wonder why.'_

As with the other inner-chambers royalty, Kiyoko turned away and into the mixed stairways to the left. The interior design was symmetrical, so a similar room existed to the right as well.

In here, Kiyoko proceeded up the steps and variant, oddly abstractly positioned platforms. Mid-floors and pointless dead-ends amidst the ascent were common. The arbitrary design was just to make the interior _look_ complicated and open-ended, when really the hall only went in one direction.

_Shoof._ Eventually, Kiyoko turned right to the royal common foyer. A fourway lounge area, where royal Hakurei gathered to relax.

"...Oh. It's the heir."

"Hello~, heir."

"She's not gonna talk to _you."_

"I know, I know."

Kiyoko summarily ignored the random maidens and men speaking around herself. Moving for the left, she approached the door reserved for the high royalty; herself and her parents.

Two elite Hakurei samurai who were stationed before the door gave her a nod, recognizing her.

_vhir._ A big, circular sigil of white magic pulsed into being before Kiyoko, and she simply walked through it. This was a defense woven by her mother; an elaborate, complicated spell which restricted access to herself, her husband, and Kiyoko.

'_My mother has a vice-like grip on the entirety of the innermost sanctums of the Hakurei Castle. As she should.'_

More steps. Graduating up this grand staircase, Kiyoko came to two huge sliding doors.

_Shoof._ Sliding these open after ascending a hill-sized row of stairs, Kiyoko came to the central chamber of her 'home'.

In this central chamber, two thrones sat at the end of an audience chamber-esque room. Couches, kotatsus, tables and chairs were all arranged around in superficial positions, unused by anyone. There were too many to use regularly.

Atop some raised stairs at the back, Hoshiko was plainly seated at her throne. Yasuoka leaned onto one arm of his throne seat as well, his neutral gaze scanning Kiyoko's form.

Two doors sat on either side of this central chamber. _'Both lead to the same place: a series of stairs to all the royal facilities. A personal library, a kitchen, my room, then the personal spaces of my parents.'_

'_It's almost all perfectly oriented so we can stay far away from one another if we wanted to. I don't know what my mom does up here all day, but my dad just lives in a single room, exits through this chamber here, and leaves.'_

'_Anyway. It's weird seeing them just sitting here, like this…'_

"Hello, Kiyoko." Hoshiko began somewhat awkwardly. She was something of a socialite; something that made her ironically bad at talking neutrally with her own daughter, who wasn't.

'_Actually… that's likely what all the space is for. To cater to the royalty she entertains. Not me, and not my dad. I don't usually give it a lot of thought...'_

'_Not that dad needs it, either.'_

Kiyoko scrunched her face briefly, taking in the floral scent of the private audience chamber. "Do you need me?"

"Mmm?" Hoshiko tilted her head. "Oh, no, dear. I was simply appreciating your beauty. My beautiful daughter."

...Kiyoko narrowed her eyes, cringing back slightly. _'Vague enough to be suspicious…'_

"Isn't she beautiful?" Hoshiko panned her gaze to her husband.

"Yes, she is beautiful." Yasuoka gave a single nod. He seemed more attentive than usual. "...Kiyoko. Have you been thinking of a life partner?"

'_What? Where is this coming from…?'_

"Nn- no?" Kiyoko answered unsurely.

"I must remind you…" Hoshiko's smile was wide, reaching her eyes. The ignorant would think she was being sincere. "To allow just anyone to breed you would reappropriate your status as the heir. For, you are not _bred._ You _create._ An important distinction I hope you are not soon to forget."

Kiyoko remembered her meeting with Milla the other week. Where they'd discussed _mating presses,_ sex positions, and the idea of casual sex.

Unironically, that was the most Kiyoko has ever thought of sex. That, along with _that one moment,_ weeks ago, with those boys who tried to rape her; along with her tutor in the sciences, who she murdered for his insolence.

"Father." Kiyoko looked at Yasuoka. "Those boys I told you about…"

'_I don't know how the process of an execution goes. I told my father what happened the other evening, and he said he'd get the process started, and that was that.'_

'_Feels long-winded to me. I should have thrown them off the balcony too. To think that scum- who challenged my birthright and life- get to live, even if it's in a cell, for weeks after their disrespect.'_

Hoshiko responded. "They were given a slap on the wrist, and released. Weeks ago, in fact."

Kiyoko tensed up. "...Is- is that so?"

"Yes." Hoshiko's easy smile grew, looking forced. "I let them go. How does that make you feel?"

'_...It doesn't matter, in the end. Yet…'_

"Why?" Kiyoko was confused. "Why would you?"

Hoshiko became smug. "Mmm? They seemed like such kind young boys. Strong, intelligent…"

Kiyoko's flat gaze clearly conveyed blunt skepticism. That was bullshit.

Reading her daughter's spooky expression, Hoshiko smiled merrily. "Toyoshige hired them by my recommendation. He awaited your maturity for a long time, you know."

"Did-" Kiyoko wasn't sure if she wanted to suggest the idea. "Did you know?"

"Yes. I knew he lusted after you. He was using those boys for his purposes, was he not?"

Looking over at Yasuoka, Hoshiko began to speak less formally. "Didn't he seem so _desperate?_ Here I was- thinking he'd make a sloppy move far earlier. He really was intelligent. He knew not to act out of line."

Yasuoka leaned his head back and forth. "Well… you _told him_ not to act out of line. Not until your go-ahead."

"Nnn." Hoshiko was waiting for an excuse to chuckle. "That sad old sinsack. A follower of my beauty to the very end." She met Kiyoko's mixed stare. "Death is a fitting retirement for him, isn't it?"

"You-" Kiyoko swallowed. "...Did he-..."

'_I can't speak out. I can't accuse her. It'd be out of line.'_

"Yes." Hoshiko wanted her to know. "I told Toyoshige he was free to make you his, and his assistant's, any way he knew how."

Tensing up, Kiyoko sized up her mother. _'...Is- is she really…'_

"You look so stand-offish." Hoshiko was endeared. "Did you think you were safe? Just because you've begun the coming of age rites?"

That _was_ what Kiyoko had deduced, but…

"Come here." Hoshiko beckoned her.

Reluctantly, Kiyoko walked up the three steps, and stopped before her.

Hoshiko pet her, parting her bangs. "You're so _cute."_

'_...I wonder how much they actually know about sex. Being Hakurei royalty like me, where it's… such a taboo.'_

'_Perhaps I have more important priorities.'_ She supposed it spoke a volume. _'I'm more jarred by our lack of knowledge on a natural subject, than I am that my mother in essence set up my demise.'_

Hoshiko traced her silky hand beneath Kiyoko's chin, and held it up. "As expected, you did away with your opposition. I'm surprised. It hadn't at all gone as I expected. By all means, when you were _completely stupid enough_ to walk into that bind, you should have become someone's pet. Yet you fought your way out, broke the binds…"

"I was proud to hear of that." Yasuoka spoke up. "...You've been taking care of your body. It takes no small knowledge of combat to do what you did, either."

Hoshiko gave him a sharp, wide-eyed glare. "Is war all you think of? You samurai are all like walking rocks. _You'd_ have walked into that trap, too."

He smiled. "And I'd have walked out bathed in their blood. One can only have so much wisdom, to prevent the forthrightness of dirty plots. It's a fact of life we will be confronted by the dishonest-"

"Don't pretend to _have a brain,_ you dirt-caked peasant." Hoshiko beamed. "You assume too much. Were I in her steps, I'd already have a vial of venom for each of them. I'd have already seduced Toyoshige into rendering himself vulnerable- and that would be when he was at my heel. With that power, I'd make him sing and dance. Just as I did to test her."

She patted Kiyoko on the cheek, making her blink. "See? ...You're still young, Kiyoko-chan. I only hope one day, you grow out of your gullibility."

'_...I've been perceptive. I want to tell her that.'_

'_That night, I was tired and, while suspicious, not knowing it'd play out immediately in such a way.'_

'_I was misinformed. Or rather, uninformed outright. One might think this entirely her fault, but she's somewhat right. But, I'd already known. Milla warned me to be aware, and I didn't think she was wrong. Even before her, I didn't trust people.'_

'_But… to think my mother would go so far…'_

"What's with the long face?" Hoshiko had a brow raised, her grin building again. "It's called _tough love,_ Kiyoko-chan."

"I think there's a difference between being prepared, and being paranoid." Kiyoko declared deciduously.

Hoshiko paused. Then, she responded. "Are they not one in the same? We become powerful in fear of the unknown, and in fear of what we _know_ as well. In anticipation, which at its heart, is the predecessor- or perhaps ancestor- of paranoia."

"Yasuoka." She spoke her husband's name. "You were the son of one of our generals. Tell me: if you hadn't pursued swordsmanship and strength, where would you be now?"

He opened his mouth-

"Dead?" Hoshiko supposed. "Yeah, I thought so. Maybe, if you weren't our strongest samurai, you would have been one of those I puppetted and killed, some day." She looked away. "Not that I want to screw around with our generals. They do good work. Even those who abuse their position, I treat with a careful hand. We need every quality sword in the fight against youkai."

Tracing Kiyoko's form with her gaze again, Hoshiko smiled more naturally. "Raw power _is_ important. Even I have some; an utmost ugly failsafe. Yet, our samurai and our maidens are all too simple. All too _predictable._ If I were born a commoner today, in my lifetime, I'm sure I could become a queen again.

"All it takes is gold, bottles of wine, and knowing how people work."

She reclined in her chair, folding her arms behind her head. "...Though, I must admit: it's better at the top. It doesn't matter what I show you two."

Her gaze traced Yasuoka's sitting form again, and then Kiyoko's. "Both of you know what would happen to you, if you _made my life harder._ Even if it brought down this whole clan, _we'd both go with it."_

"Mo- mother." Kiyoko spoke up.

"I didn't say you could talk." Hoshiko replied on reflex. "...But- you may."

"What is your dream?"

Hoshiko blinked once. Kiyoko thought it looked somewhat funny; such an awkwardly phased look from someone so well-dressed, so intricately detailed compared to all around herself.

Finding her answer, Hoshiko spoke. "I don't _dream._ I live."

'_What a non-answer. Fine, then...'_

"What do you look forward to?" Kiyoko pried deeper. "What did you want as a child?"

Hoshiko jerked her head back. "What is this philosophical trite? What do _you_ want, then, Kiyoko?"

"Why are you afraid of answering me?" Kiyoko began to glare.

Hoshiko saw the look in her eyes.

In the next moment, Kiyoko found herself sailing across the room. Hoshiko had used a barrier to shove her with abandon.

_Thu- thud!_ She rolled on her side, snapping into a barrel roll to minimize the chances of her head hitting the ground. _'I feel as though it would have…'_

...Plainly, Kiyoko dusted off her kimono, and stood again. _'Milla gives me a harder time. She certainly doesn't hold back in bringing me pain.'_

"I fear no one." Hoshiko lied blatantly. "If _your _dream is to disappoint me, it's working. You may become clever and wise, Kiyoko, but no matter where your studies lead you, realize that _I_ am above you. I am your mother. I _created_ you. I rule the Hakurei clan. And, I can _erase you_ just as easily."

'_...Hmmh.'_

Kiyoko looked up to her elegance, despite her sadism, in the past. Now? The fear made her seem unappealing. _'Not that I'm not afraid, either. But, we all have to be afraid. This is a world built on fear. To deny your fear makes you ignorant of it- ignorant of what you're trying to protect yourself against.'_

'_It's presumptuous. A strategy that may have served her well against a clan of nobodies and similarly ignorant people… she's driven, at the very least.'_

'_But, she's not growing. She's not adapting. I've adapted myself constantly, re-evaluating my threats. Milla has doubtlessly done the same; her magic has grown many times more potent, and her irritating deductions even moreso.'_

"I'm afraid." Kiyoko declared.

Hoshiko curled her lips into a wry smile. "Aa- oh? Nnn. You should be. I would be too, if I were you."

"To fear is to recognize your threats and your world." Kiyoko deduced. "To deny your fear is to be ignorant. Such blind aggression- it works on fools, but not on _true threats._ When the youkai come, despite your elegance, you will be _worthless."_

...Hoshiko stood from her throne, in one slow, borderline inhuman motion. It didn't seem like she used anything except her legs to get up, her arms folded into her long red-white sleeves.

"Where is this talk coming from?" Hoshiko's voice was soft. "You are not fully studied yet. You are not even _an adult_ yet. You are _a child."_

She pointed a pale hand at Kiyoko, her nails painted ruby red. "If anyone reeks of ignorance, it is _you."_

Kiyoko took in a breath, and threw on a brave face. "My dream is to shape the world, so I may live the way I want. So that, one day, we may all live in a world of valor."

'_I don't know some of the specifics of how I'll get there… but, in such a world, I have no other options. I'll solve the enigmas of the human public- if I can. Otherwise… the youkai are more pressing.'_

"Of _valor?"_ Hoshiko found the whole idea naive. "To shape the _world?_ ...What unneeded effort. Look around you. This is _my world,_ which _I've_ built. We live at the top. There is nothing more I could need than to retain this life. All it takes is know-how; something not propounded by simply _working hard."_

'_...Selfish. Like Milla. You call my effort unneeded, but our world is the way it is for other's lack of trying.'_

Kiyoko frowned. "I've told you my dream. Now, tell me yours."

Hoshiko snorted, frowning herself. "This conversation is over. We're getting off-track. Your father and I have been meaning to talk with you, about an _unrelated_ matter."

'_Coward.'_

Yasuoka stood from his own seat. His posture was slightly uneasy at first, before he stood tall.

"You will be practicing your combat with youkai with him." Hoshiko supplied. "He will teach you the greater intricacies of the sword from his perspective, to help accelerate your combat training. When you're both done, I'll make _positively sure_ you're both cared for."

'_I don't like how she says that.'_ It was going to be a war on two fronts for Kiyoko today, it would seem.

Turning away, Hoshiko practically glided on her socks, as she made for the room's edges. "I'd like to see your _attitude_ adjusted by the time you get back… or there _will_ be _consequences."_

'_As if there weren't already. She has something planned. My dissent isn't going to go unnoticed. Most people forget; but she holds grudges, she obsesses over details that may jeopardize her rulership.'_

'_Well-prepared? Maybe. Paranoid? Definitely. Will either truly protect her? ...She's too self-absorbed. When a greater, more massive foe comes about… no. No, this lifestyle will not protect her.'_

'_Of anything a paranoid ruler would want to hold their vice on the strongest, it would be their family. No one's as close to backstabbing her as me or dad, second to only herself.'_

She was spurred from her thoughts, Yasuoka approaching her plainly.

"We will be leaving now." His decision was prompt. Even if she wasn't going with him, she knew he'd leave immediately. He was, if nothing else, a man of action.

"Yes, father." Kiyoko gave him a slight bow.

...He raised a brow at her. "Not got a talkdown ready for me, too?"

Kiyoko was tempted to flick her gaze up, but resisted the urge. "...That is yet to be decided. You're not the one I have to put up with everyday."

Yasuoka nodded vaguely. "Hmh. Fair enough. Leave it to Hoko-chan to not know how teenagers work. As long as you don't stab me, you can talk as much shit as you want. Two rules. Don't attack me, and don't get in my way."

...Then, he paused. "I suppose a third would be-... yes. The third being to listen to me, as this _will_ be training, of a sort. I will have you perform tasks and execute skills. It just wouldn't work if you _didn't,_ so don't think I'm being bossy."

"Yes, father." Kiyoko didn't see any reason to disagree, for now.

'_Just what I wanted to do, after a day of classes. Go to more classes. ...Provided, I'd be practicing my own sword techniques anyway, so if what he shows me is actually valuable, I'll appreciate it.'_

'_Let the cross-examination begin, I guess.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Kiyoko and her father Yasuoka proceeded into the woods on the village's western edge.

There was a sunflower field to the north that everyone kept unconcerned with; a powerful youkai resided there, and to risk a battle with them would potentially jeopardize the clan.

'_I know all too well. Even in our more remote fronts, we are boxed in by malicious entities which may work together to crush us at any time. Our only saving grace is we are unified; the youkai, as a whole, are not.'_

Due to the proximity between here to the Hakurei village, the sunflower field, and the oni-dominated battlegrounds to the south but before the mountain, wild youkai were an awkward scarcity.

'_There are lots of big fish around here, and they're active, hungry. As something littler, sticking around isn't exactly smart.'_

"You…" Yasuoka took pause, watching Kiyoko pad along with him. He chose to wear an inconspicuous red-white kimono for this excursion instead of his armor; an expression of the plain nature of this adventure. "Have you not been given a katana of your own, yet?"

Kiyoko looked gentle and plain. "...No?"

'_Without his armor on, he's shorter than I thought.'_

"Huh." He nodded. "That bokken will do you no good out here. ...Here."

_Shi~ng._ Whipping his sword out in a near instant, he held it before Kiyoko. "Take this."

It was a blade accented with an amber sheen along its glimmering steel.

Accepting it, Kiyoko found it was heavier than she anticipated. _'It's longer, and therefore more weighted, than the size of bokken I train with…'_

"This is the _Boryoku Hidoi."_ Yasuoka informed her. "Try as you might, it will refuse to break. ...Please do not actually try. Though the steel will always remain durable, its edge will not. Not without proper care, at least."

'_Terrible violence, you say. Apt name for a blade… not that I figured people named their blades. Will I be expected to later? Or, are you simply entertaining yourself with the name…?'_

Holding it up, Kiyoko looked it over, examining how the forest's overcast sky became orange-white against the blade's edge.

'_So, this is a real sword. My father's sword. Not like the ceremonial katana I used in that execution.'_

Yasuoka idly stared at her, as she examined the blade. "Not too different from your bokken, I hope. Remember not to cut yourself with it."

'_I'm not stupid.'_ Kiyoko didn't appreciate the warning's delivery, but ignored it soon enough regardless.

Walking forward in the clearing, many meters off from the village, Yasuoka took in the distant mountains as he stood amongst the tall grass. "...We could, perhaps, begin with you cutting all this grass."

Kiyoko supposed so. _'This should be done in a heartbeat.'_

Stepping around the field, she examined it herself.

'_...Some of this grass is rooted into the floor strangely. For how tall much of it is, you'd think it'd be more densely packed. It's all missing the seeds grass typically gains on the ends of its blades.'_

_SWISH!_ She swung her katana out without effort, and lopped off the tips of some grass blades.

She took pause. _'...That's a strange emission.'_ From the grass's tips, some kind of misty, whitish substance came out.

She examined the floor closer. _'There's dead grass beneath all of these strange blades.'_

"Father," Kiyoko turned to him. "Do you sense any youkai here?" She hadn't, but this phenomena made her question her own judgment.

He had his arms folded. "...If I _did,_ you say that as if I could do anything about it, without my katana."

Kiyoko's gaze grew flatter. "Talismans…?"

"Crutches that do no good against the oni or tengu." Yasuoka shook his head. "Or any youkai worth being a youkai. Only good for trash. ...I also don't believe either of those are known for growing grass."

'_Not-... whatever.'_ Kiyoko resisted the urge to smirk at his attitude.

Since he was at the edge of the clearing, she could swing her blade as she wished. _'Alright…'_

Arching the blade back, she focused, crouching to be more level with the tall grass…

_SHI~NG!_ Swinging it wide, she slid forward at the same time.

_sss~!_ The grass she cut hissed. As if singed, the grass emitted white smoke from their bases, and from the cut blades.

A wide cone before herself was now much more cleanly. _'...I suppose the blade just has some sort of aspect to it, which sears and burns. Apt.'_

'_Still, this is going to be more awkward than I thought.'_ She never considered hitting such low-to-the-ground targets before…

"I feel as though _grass_ is a poor target for such a long blade." Kiyoko hazarded a notion.

"Huh? Nonsense." Yasuoka shook his head. "Helps you be more efficient. Let's see you cut this grass."

'_...I guess he wants me to get creative.'_

Kiyoko reeled the blade back again.

'_Then…'_

_WOOSH!_ She swung it, and crouched.

_WOOWOOWOOWOOSH!_ She spun around on her sandals whilst crouching, her blade skimming the surface of the soil. It cut the grass unevenly, but made a quick job of reducing it to stubble.

Graceless, but efficient. Yasuoka debated whether to be displeased with the uneven cut or not. It was wild grass on vaguely uneven terrain, so he couldn't be so flippant, he supposed.

Then, Kiyoko began skidding around the clearing, still crouched.

_SWISH! SHING- SWISH, SWISH!_ She'd toss herself around with each flail of the blade, its properties allowing it to power through the grass. A trail of small Hakurei barrier plates were left in her trail throughout the field, revealing her secret to the effortless spin.

'_This is only possible because I can start spinning, and the lack of friction of the magic barrier will let me indefinitely keep sinning.'_

The magic surface of the barrier would allow her to glide around too. Like so, she made short work of the grass.

...Yasuoka nodded. He held up one of his arms, unfolding his arms. It would be a signal to the men he had positioned nearby.

'_I'm- getting dizzy…'_

Soon, Kiyoko stopped. Standing, she took a breath in, and looked around unevenly. "Wo- woah…"

'_That's at least half of the grass done already. Now…'_

Typically, a Hakurei heir would be expected to kill an aggressive youkai during their second rite. For Kiyoko, this would be still half a year- or more- from now.

That didn't mean she still couldn't get experience, Yasuoka figured. The first test was simply of willingness, after all. The second would be to prove both willingness _and_ aptitude.

_TINK!_ That's when Kiyoko's katana struck something on the edge of the clearing.

'_Ah!'_ She froze. She had swung for some suspicious brush on the clearing's edge, but met stone instead.

..._SWISH- SWISH._ She cleared the brush away with skilled flicks of her sword anyway, as it was just annoying. With her free arm, she made small white barriers in the air, which she used to push away sundered foliage and leaves.

There was an old, stone well back here. The moment Kiyoko saw it, she sensed what made her suspicious.

'_...There's- a youkai, in that well.'_ She thought of the girl whose throat she had to slit.

Cautiously, she came up to its edge-

Eight hands shot out, cast in shade, made of bone. They came for her.

_SHING!_ Kiyoko's amber katana flicked up to guard her face, rending the shade, and she stepped back. _'Oh- hells, what- was that-'_

_thu- thu- thump._ Bone pieces fell nearly soundlessly onto the grass and dirt floor, cut from shady limbs.

The well emitted an energy Kiyoko hadn't seen before. She'd only ever sparred with others of her clan; a youkai's energy was different.

And, it was _palpable._ She could see it in the air; ripples of bent light and black magic.

"_DAMN YOU DAMN YOU"_

She jumped, yells emitting from the well. They were loud and commanding.

"_You- put me down-"_

"_-how dare you-"_

"_I won't let it end like-"_

"_Hahahaha!"_

Sixteen limbs gripped the well's edges. A black cloth bubbled up out of it, strange blue lights bleeding through the fabric.

Then, she saw it. Eight skulls came from the hole in the top of the black, all bleeding a magical blue light into the air.

"...You didn't think all youkai were like the one we had you kill that night, did you?"

Yasuoka's voice came from her flank. She held her blade tight, knuckles white.

"We've educated you well, I hope." He spoke plainly. "Do you know what this is?"

Kiyoko's mind raced to identify the floating mass of black, light and skulls. The being must have been two meters tall, made purely of magic and bone.

Then, Kiyoko was reminded, despite its surreal visual.

"Kyoukotsu." She repeated its name. "A vengeful spirit."

Kyoukotsu were created by the spirits of dead bodies discarded into wells unceremoniously. These were spirits of villagers ruined by youkai, and left in this well some time ago. No one could guess when each skull or each body was added to the hole.

Its name meant fury and violence- which Kiyoko now found to be an apt parallel to her father's katana, _Terrible Violence,_ or _Boryoku Hidoi._

"It's not inherently meaningful or powerful." Yasuoka figured. "A being created by disrespect. If you remember, if it apprehends you, it will only curse you. Something devastating and haunting to the typical villager… but, to us, who can dispel the curses, not so much."

'_It's also not living.'_ As it was a spirit, the Kyoukotsu was no living being. It was merely the raw essence of retribution for petty slights- to crudely summarize it.

'_That means I can go all out in dispelling it.'_

She'd practiced youkai dispelling rituals before, but those were for spirits of purpose. Those who needed treatment in a specific way. Youkai bound by emotion, concepts beyond human perception, and abstract matters of the spirit.

This particular youkai was only mildly so complicated. The curses it cast, and its existence, could be entirely undone if the bodies were removed from the well, and given a proper burial; bones as they may be.

'_They're not oni, or tengu, who are complicated enough as to construct societies which rival humans. They're magical phenomena. Also, again, not alive.'_

Though, for spirits who made themselves physical and tangible, while they would not be truly defeated or dispelled by physical arts…

"To take me out," Kiyoko pointed her katana at the big, floating mass of bone and cloth, "you must fight me like a man."

One could still defend themselves from an apparition's physical manipulations with physical countermeasures. Namely, variable levels of violence.

'_This youkai…'_ She realized something. _'It's made a mistake, if it wanted to continue being a youkai.'_

'_Its bones. The bones of the corpses inside; it's brought them all outside of the well.'_

"_HOW FORTUNATE ARE YOU-"_ The bones roared down at her.

"_You never found me-"_

"_-it's too late-"_

"_-the pain cannot be undone-"_

"_AND YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF"_

Kiyoko's heart beat hard. _'It's so loud- so big-...'_

She remembered her fights with Milla. Fights where she'd go all-out, and neither would stop until they beat each other to a bloody pulp.

"Pain…?" Kiyoko questioned it. "You're-... in pain?"

"_PAIN PAIN PAIN"_

"_What do you think-"_

"_Of course, of course-"_

"_Heh- hahaha! COME HERE LITTLE GIRL"_

Kiyoko yelled against it. "I'll show you- pain that can't be _undone!"_

Blue light blossomed from the cornucopia of gathered skulls. _"HEHEHEHE!"_

Yasuoka stood far back, arms folded. To his knowledge, Kiyoko had few skills to deal with this situation, other than to flail her sword, cast magic, or sling around talismans.

_WOOSH!_ Sixten limbs spread wide, to embrace Kiyoko's form. The skulls all seemingly beamed, maws open wide. _"Feel our pain- feel disrespect, feel- feel- pain- feel-"_

_WHISH!_ The many limbs folded down to hug Kiyoko tight, and place a great curse on her that would dampen her spirit and soul.

But, when it hugged down, it didn't embrace her. It could feel that she was gone.

Kiyoko had teleported behind the imposing spirit.

'_Imagine you're kicking Milla's ass, and be as vicious as possible. It's not a living being.'_

_Skri~k!_ Kiyoko slid the long katana along the dirt floor, to arc it up.

A golden barrier plate formed beneath her sandals, and began to raise as she slung her sword up and into the skeletal mass.

_CRACKA- THUNK!_ The arc of her arm helped the katana's midst meet the sheer amount of bone. Her blade crashed against pounds of it, and the loud clicks of blade on bone rang out.

From the powerful way the barrier she stood upon raised up, she sent herself and the Kyoukotsu roaring into the air with the exchange.

"_Blast off!"_

'_There's- more bone undercarriage to it than I thought!'_ All of the limbs that weren't arms were packed with the torso bones under there.

"_HWUAH"_ The skulls turned to face her as they ascended together, all surprised by this sequence of events.

Before the arms could arc back around, Kiyoko slung the katana away from the thing's underside, and leapt.

_WHAKRACK!_ She cleaved it straight between the entire spectre. Her barrier platform lowered once her knees met it, carrying her cleave downward. Amber heat exploded from the impact, like a brilliant flash amidst the being's black.

"_HAHAHAHA"_

"_Like we care-"_

"_FUCK OFF FUCK OFF"_

The spirit split into two halves. Its black cloak was parted, and each half of dark cloth whirled to wrap around the now two divided entities.

Four skulls bobbed in the air to either side of Kiyoko as she now stood on the floor. Each being had six arms, but was only half as massive as the initial Kyoukotsu.

'_That was… more effective than I thought.'_ That was a basic trick she'd used on Milla countless times. It was hard to defend against.

The spirit to her left was bobbing away from her for some reason, seeming passive. She could guess by the way its limbs and cloak curled way from her, making it seem less imposing.

"_SURPRISE"_ The Kyoukotsu on her right tried to grab her-

_WHISH!_ To escape its attempt, Kiyoko thrust her katana forward, and slid across the floor towards the other, more cowardly Kyoukotsu with baffling speed.

'_Thunder Thrust!' _She made sure not to announce her attack out loud.

_KRAKRACK!_ She plunged the katana into the further Kyoukotsu's bone mass, using both arms, before retracting her blade in a near instant.

"_OH SHIT"_ It split into two as well, cloak split straight in half, an explosion of orange from within it blasting its form apart.

Pivoting around, Kiyoko faced the four-headed Kyoukotsu, which was intent on capturing her.

It was about to succeed, as she'd faced it the moment it was about to grapple her. It'd be the end of this encounter if it succeeded, and Kiyoko would be another victim of its curse.

'_Demon Decapitation!'_ Kiyoko held the blade with both arms, like she'd done with 'Thunder Thrust'. She flicked it wide and inward for the skeleton's neck.

_Swish!_ With one simple motion, she'd severed the four heads from the shade that held them into place.

"_NO"_

"_Please- nn-"_

"_You- whore-"_

"_AAAAAUUH"_

_Clack- clack- thunk- clack._ A rain of bones and four skulls erupted before Kiyoko. Blue light exploded into the air, all of the youkai's magic dissipating. She could see it trickling back to the well, as if it were water flooding into it.

Turning, she focused on the two remaining Kyoukotsu.

'_Now… this battle is just about over.'_

_WOOSH!_ All of a sudden, just as she felt confident, the rightmost one rocketed for her. _"TOO LATE-"_

_WHAM!_ Its four arms smashed her in the face. _"Unghk!"_ Kiyoko flew back, eyes wide.

On reflex- remembering the times Milla bludgeoned her with furniture- Kiyoko spun on a heel, converting all her momentum into a wide, unleashing sword slash.

_KRAK!_ The orange-tinted katana drew a deadly line in the air, and clattered against the thing's midsection.

"_Huu-"_ The Kyoukotsu's eyes flared wildly. It flinched from the impact, holding up its arms-

_SHING!_ With an inward cut, Kiyoko removed all of its arms; two from the elbow, and two from the wrist. The skeletal, disconnected joints did little to stop the enchanted sword from severing the bonds.

"_FUCKING GIRL"_ The skulls roared together. _"FEEL MY PAIN FEEL IT-"_

Kiyoko swung her katana wide, as the Kyoukotsu flung itself forward to tackle her. This swing let the blade's tip pass through its neck region.

_Clack- CLACK! Clackunkunk._ Plainly, Kiyoko leaned out of the way of the meteor of remains, which exploded into a messy pile behind herself.

One two-headed Kyoukotsu was left, beholding Kiyoko's dominance over the fight.

Kiyoko met its gaze. Despite the piercing blue, and the way its hands clenched in anger, she felt it fit to smile at it.

"Feel free to _die, _when you've had enough._"_

"_You-..." _The Kyoukotsu seethed in building, vague anger. _"You do not UNDERSTAND-"_

_Whiwhiwhiwhish._ Kiyoko slung the katana like a stick, letting go of it. As it flew, it slid through the Kyoukotsu's neck.

She hadn't realized, but the katana was glowing with yellow energy when she threw it. _'Um-'_

_KABOO~M!_ When it met the tree behind the apparition, the sword made a colossal explosion. Kiyoko practically jumped out of her skin, jaw dropping from the absolute magnitude and volume of the visual.

_WHAM!_ Loose bones beat her up, as they were launched from the annihilated spirit. "Uuhf- _anh- ow…!"_

_THUMP!_ Kiyoko was thrown onto her ass, when a whole rib cage rammed into her. _"Unf…"_

'_Not-... not something that happens to you- everyday…'_

...Yasuoka was standing there, brows furrowed, body somewhat tense.

Those were not the basics she was taught. He did not see repetitive abuse of the teleporting-thrust technique a general had invented for her. He hadn't seen her bokken-centric bludgeoning combo attack; the techniques he saw were mostly fit for actual katana usage.

Still, most of her technique was simple at heart. Thrusts, safe swings, and whatever that 'upward slice into downward cleave' attack was. _That_ was one he was certain was meant for a bokken.

...Kiyoko tossed the rib cage aside, after having spent an uncomfortable amount of time examining it. "Ugh."

Stepping up to her, Yasuoka let his arms lax. "You accomplished more than I anticipated."

Standing, Kiyoko brushed herself off, and have him a neutral look. "That-... that was underwhelming."

He blinked. "Underwhelming?"

"Yes…" Kiyoko nodded. "Utterly underwhelming. That was hardly a youkai. If your men met this on the battlefield, it'd be eradicated in a heartbeat. I expected to be thrown in headfirst against a true opponent."

...Yasuoka nodded stiffly.

This child of his, someway and somehow, would be going places in the realm of combat. Despite being a woman, despite the doting of her mother, Kiyoko had a hunger for combat he could see now.

"...Next time," he supposed, "I'll bring you on one of our forest patrols. Not until you find yourself a suit of armor, and a katana of your own, however."

'_Hmm.'_ Kiyoko would have to think on that. _'I assume I'm not to use the royal armory. All mother and father's toys. For now.'_


	6. The REAL Vanishing Act!

One year had passed. It had been one year since Kiyoko's first coming of age rite. Her first step towards becoming the leader of the Hakurei clan.

This made it around eight or nine months since Milla opened communications with her mother again, and had settled in with her life at the complex.

Eight or nine months since Kiyoko had begun being more assertive with her parents— to her veritable chagrin whenever she crossed her will with her mother's.

"Hnn~..." Milla stretched her arms into the air. "Aah."

She lumbered out of her room at the magical complex. She scratched the back of her head, feeling at her messy brown hair.

'_I'm all sweaty. S'it late summer again? Time sure flies when you're havin' fun.'_

She wasn't sure when it began, but she was amidst another period of days where Kiyoko was nowhere to be found outside the castle. It had gotten to a point where Milla didn't feel like infiltrating the castle everyday to look for her— especially since it'd simply dwindle down the routes she could take.

'_Probably more trainin' or some shit. S'whatever.'_

Now and again, Milla would experiment with the outer walls, sometimes wander the castle halls— but to find Kiyoko when she hardly left the most difficult-to-reach places anymore was troublesome.

That, and Milla had more things to attend to than her. _'If she's just gonna keep bein' bitter about it, I'll wait. We'll see what happens t'night anyway.'_

Milla would of course be watching the second coming-of-age rite.

'_Course, the whole point of everything's about me keepin' Kinky's power fantasies in check, so like… I can't slack fer too long. But, I'm busy, she's busy—... that, an' I've been spendin' awhile findin' myself.'_

'_It came to me. Who am I, if not obsessed over Kiyoko's bullshit? I mean, I'll gladly be obsessed— ain't nothin' better to do usually— but life's all about havin' fun. An' I don't wanna say that chasin' after Kinky's a hassle sometimes… but it can be a hassle.'_

'_An' that's why I've taken a little break. Kinky ain't goin' anywhere.'_

It's been more than a few months since Milla tangled with her last. _'She's been finishing off my spirit form quicker and quicker. Even all the shit I've wrung outta mom is havin' trouble keepin' up.'_

Plainly, Milla walked out out of her room, in her pajama top and some bloomers.

Slipping her socks on, she hopped out into the midst of the main foyer area, where the couches and tables would be.

_Pop! Pop!_ With two flourishes of magic, she gave herself her skirt and her actual top.

'_Ready~, fer the day!'_

Gradually, Milla proceeded up to the popular hot spot.

'_Henry, Mamako— oh, what.'_

Her mother Anna was seated there, looking around the complex with varied awe.

"Oh. There she is." Mamako gave Milla a wave, seated right beside Anna. "Good morning, Milla. Or, evening, I should say."

"All I did was _nap_ a li'l." Milla waved her off. "Um…" She fixed her tired gaze on her mother, who was just _here._ "You even _allowed_ in here?"

Anna snorted. "...As a member of your family, I had a right to know. It's not like I personally hadn't known. The only one who shouldn't know is your father."

"Like it ain't suspicious, with both of us bein' outta the house!" Milla grinned. "Really, where the hell'd you come from…!?"

"I was getting tired of only seeing you every other weekend." Anna smirked back. "And… I figured it was time for me to live again."

'_Yeah, only took like half a year since I killed— I mean, nearly killed ya— and like three seasons of you alternatin' between being on yer period and being sad.'_

Milla remained skeptical. "Awful sudden change of heart, fer someone who felt like it was too much trouble ta shake up the status quo a few months ago."

"Well…" Anna looked to the side. "I'm… well, it might not come as a surprise _to you,_ but your father and I have grown more distant."

Milla snorted. "No shit, huh."

"I don't exactly know how… you know, _marriage proceedings_ work in Japan." Anna looked uncertain. "But… I don't think it matters. This village isn't quite aligned with the rest of the nation as it is."

'_She thinkin' of a divorce? Couldn't say I blame her.'_

Next to her on the same couch, Mamako spoke up, having idly listened in. "So you _are_ married… and unhappy, it would seem. Why did you marry him, then?"

Anna gave Mamako a flat look. "It used to be better."

'_Wonder if the only reason she stuck around was for my sake. Maybe. Actually, wonder how long they were even together. I dunno shit about my parent's relationship.'_

"But— I'm not going to talk about that tonight." Anna didn't want to face off her nerves again. "I came to see you, Milla."

"...Mmh." Milla nodded idly. "You and Mamako here hittin' it off? You bond over anything yet?"

"You know..." Henry was at a different couch, looking skeptical. "Milla, is that _actually_ your mother? That's who she _said_ she was, but I refuse to believe she'd show up _only now,_ if she actually cared at all."

Milla gave him a half-grin. "Yeah, as it _turns out—"_

"She seems like a nice woman." Mamako didn't seem to have much to say. "...A somewhat bland, if nice woman."

That was a strange comment to Milla, but only at first. She thought on it some. "Bland, huh? ...Yeah, I could see that."

"I'm bland, am I?" Anna had a lopsided smile.

Milla nodded. "Y'can hardly _cook,_ y'don't do much _reading—_ understandable, 'cause mosta Japan's books are wack like that— ya don't _go_ anywhere, or _do_ anything, and even after our big brawl last year, ya just… went back ta _business as usual_, except sometimes we hung out."

...Anna didn't have anything to say about that. She seemed oddly wistful as she took in her surroundings again.

'_Sometimes, she just turns off. Not sure if it's like, denial, or just admission. Or rather uh, submission. Is it really that hard ta think about it?'_

"Anyway…" Anna didn't address the criticism. "Um. I— I was wondering… if you wanted to view the event in town tonight. The one with the Hakurei heir, and everything. There's going to be good food, and… if you don't mind coming with me, I think it'd be fun."

'_Oh. Yeah.'_

'_Kinky's killin' another youkai, tonight. This time it's more like they captured an actual fighty-type and are gonna let her have at 'em, so it's less shit. Still not onboard with what happened last year. Probably won't ever be.'_

'_I contemplated fuckin' wit' the rite, but… man, even if shit went well, the only dude on the run'd be me. It's harder now, especially when I got—... I got a couple connections, shit I wanna do, and at the end of the day, Kiyoko was what really made the previous plan of mine. It'd've been just the two of us, against the world.'_

'_Now, the opportunity's been gone for a long time. I oughta stop thinkin' about it.'_

"Sure." Milla leaned back, stretching her arms again. "Nn~h. Want me to pay for—... whatever? Sure as hell got enough money."

"Um… no, I will." Anna decided. "...My husband won't notice."

'_Kind of a dangerous line to utter, ain't it. Not that it matters here.'_

"And—" Anna gazed up along Milla's form. "Do you want me to help you— doll up, for the event?"

"...Uh." Milla smiled awkwardly. "No?"

Anna furrowed her brows. "...You're not going dressed like _that,_ are you?"

Milla was morbidly curious about her expectations. "Does it matter…? Actually— the hell d'ya mean by 'dolled up', anyway? I don't _do_ 'dolled up'. I pretty myself as I please, an' I don't think I really gotta stress about it."

'_Wait…'_

As Milla stood there, panning her gaze between her mother and Henry, she began to devise a plot.

A truly stupid, wild, impulse of a plot. _'Y'know…'_

'_Maybe I can give Kinky a real comin' of age test. Somethin' that'll show the whole village where we stand; somethin' that actually tests her, 'cause whatever random-ass convict they throw at her pro'lly ain't.'_

"Actually." Milla raised a finger into the air. "...Ma— mother, whatever I call ya—... before we head out, I'm gonna need ya ta help me."

Anna blinked, unsure about her wording.

Milla also pointed at Henry. "Also— yer comin' with us to the festival bullshit hooha."

"Why _me."_ He didn't look motivated. "...You know— it's actually funny, now that I think about it. You'd be taking me on a date with _your mother_ there. I didn't even know if you _had_ a mother you knew."

Milla gave him an intense grin back. "The hell's that mean…? And— if ya wanna _call it a date,_ then whatever— I just need ya fer a _thing!"_

He seemed to recognize what she implied. "Aa— a _thing,_ you say. Well—... _alright._ It could be _fun,_ I guess."

'_Alright…'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

6 | The _REAL_ Vanishing Act!

Milla stood across the street from the front of the Hakurei's frontmost, royal courtyard.

She remembered the scenery from that night, seemingly eons ago. Before she'd begun her progression to power in the complex. When it was just her and Kiyoko, and it felt like the world spit on what she stood for.

'_But now, it'll be different.'_

For now, Milla had her whole body cast in a conspicuous, navy-tinted cloak. It was to conceal her spirit body's long, green hair, and the ornate dress she'd put on underneath.

'_This time… I'm gonna settle the score. I'm gonna show Kinky just how damn dedicated I really am.'_

'_I don't know what exactly this'll mean for either of us… but I'm gonna regret it if I don't do anything.'_

During her time at the magic complex north of the village, she'd mastered the art of spirit projection through self-study. This body Milla created for herself was an _Ikiryou—_ a simple youkai using one's own soul and will.

Right now, her mother was awaiting her return. Milla told her she went to take a piss, and that Henry went for pretzels.

In reality, Milla and him were providing her spirit self with more energy; a process involving intimacy on the roof of Mamako's former home, which was just across the street from the courtyard that Kiyoko's rite would take place in.

'_I'm gonna give it all I got. But, first…'_

_whish._ She was easily gliding between Hakurei and villagers out on the busy main street.

With her smooth motions, she received odd looks, but no one would suspect a youkai in the crowd on an occasion like tonight. They'd be slaughtered summarily for trying anything, they were certain.

_Ding, ding._ The plate shop's bell clattered as Milla entered on her own, all but her chin concealed by her big navy cloak.

With a wave of her hand, she used a slight amount of magic to tilt a shelf ever-so-slightly.

_CRA- CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!_ Precious plates became worthless shards on the floor within an instant, and the clerk maidens all snapped into attention. "Oh— _fuck!"_

"_Suki!_ You forgot to fix the _fucking shelf! Fuck!"_

"_What!?_ You— _ow! Ow!"_

Ignoring the extreme drama, Milla smiled and weaved past the counter, and into the back rooms.

_Shoof._ She rushed through a shoji hall, into the wood tea room inside.

On her right, there was the male priest and the two shrine maidens from last year. They were there again, in the same positions as last year.

"You!" Instantly, the priest recognized her, fighting to stand.

"_Crystal Sheen."_ Milla lobbed something invisible underhand, which began to become a teal orb as it approached them.

"That— that's the youkai from—"

"What is—"

_KRAKA- KAFWA~SH!_ On impact with the floor before their kotatsu, the orb became a flash of teal light.

Then, in almost a literal instant, the light solidified after expanding. A beautiful, teal crystal reminiscent of plastic toys trapped the three in an indefinite state.

'_The mana doesn't last long. They'll be free before they know it.'_

With that, Milla browsed into the hallway across from where she entered.

She pushed effortlessly through the backroom, and came to the staff door that lead to the storefront centered in the royal courtyard proper.

_WHABAM!_ Kicking the door open, Milla rode on a broom from the back room's broom closet. _"Woohoo~!"_

_Woosh!_ Maidens froze, as the cloaked Milla ascended over the counter, skidded to a stop before the door, and promptly flicked the sliding door open to leave.

"_Wha—"_ One of the maidens ran after her—

"_Phase Wire."_ Milla flicked an arm down along the bottom of the doorway.

Four bubbles rolled into the air, cyan marbles contained within.

_Click- POP!_ Milla snapped her fingers immediately, and the bubbles all popped, as did the marbles inside.

Ethereal, blue lines of electricity were drawn in the air, blurry and poorly defined. The beams seemed to be made of both electricity and water, dripping charged drops onto the floor which instantly spread out and hugged the ground, as if. It was unlike how water would normally act.

The maidens who moved for Milla all stopped, recognizing the violent-looking nature of the trap.

"It—" The smallest maiden among them raced over to the window, to see if she could spot Milla's apparition-like form.

On the breeze, the navy-colored cloak flapped around, loose and seemingly worn by no one. The maiden watched as the wind carried it away, and the youkai she was looking for seemed to be nowhere to be found.

"It got away…" The brown-haired maiden's hands were on the glass, mystified.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

The navy-colored cloak fluttered through a window, into where one of tonight's guest stars was being housed.

This room was seemingly normal; shoji walls adorned each end of the room, and it was warmly lit by candles. But, in the center, there was an open jail cell. A boy was seated there, chained and sealed.

He looked to be a tengu pup. A young boy with white hair sat with folded arms, adorned with Hakurei talismans, chained by the ankle to the secured metal and wood chair chosen for him. It was well-battered; used for many youkai before him.

This house was the first left of the castle, within the clearing; a property of unidentifiable purpose, accessible on foot only through the Hakurei Castle itself.

However, Milla had infiltrated through the air. _'Y'd think they'd guard the air better, knowin' tengu and all.'_

_Woosh._ The navy-colored cloak whirled around, and flared out.

Milla stepped out of it, leering down at the tengu pup. Offensively bright, neon blue boots clicked against the floor. She wore a similarly vibrant skirt and top.

'_Finally. Got all the pieces of it together. Was a bitch gettin' the complex's people to help throw together a like, real outfit like I envisioned… but, s'good.'_

'_Main reason I needed mom's help was to straighten an' brush my hair a bit. S'typically way more, y'know, messy and moppy. It's perfectly straight like this… perfect fer pretendin' to be a wild-ass big youkai. Y'know, one that ain't normally myself.'_

Milla looked right. There was a samurai there, whose eyes began to widen.

_Fwap!_ A talisman met Milla's head, and she arched her body back as if it'd worked on her. "Aa—..."

The samurai relaxed. "Got you, _demon."_

Milla snapped her body back into standing, and threw an arm out—

_SPLA- SPLA- SPLASH!_ A wall of water clumps met his body, as if from a particularly big bucket.

_ZAP- KRIKRACK- ZAP- ZAP!_ "Ee— _rgh—"_ His throat locked up, his body paralyzed by the building jolts that ran up the mess of water.

_Bam- thud!_ He fell to the floor as the water became steam, heated to an insufferable point, searing his skin. His armor became harmful to himself from how hot it grew.

"_Uu— k— nn—"_ He writhed where he laid, tortured by the combined elements.

'_Should keep the heat off me long enough.' _Milla smiled at her work, and turned to regard the captive...

The tengu wolf pup blinked, paused by the elemental spectacle of luminescence and vague color.

"Hello there, little boy." Milla stepped up to him, and leaned over him. "Where's yer mommy?"

"...Aa—" He blinked. One of the talismans on him restricted his voice, muting him, and making the attempt to speak painful.

Milla's smile widened. _'Ah, yes, charms.'_

_VHIR._ In a near instant, the charms roared off his body, a white pentagram pulsing around his form. "Wo— woah…" He could also speak again. "Aa— I can talk…!"

"Good for you." Milla congratulated him. "If you listen to me, you'll make it out of here alive. Do ya understand?"

"Did— did the village send you?" He beamed up at her. "You're really pretty…"

...Milla blinked, and smiled again. "Mmm? Maybe. I'm gonna warp yer ass across the lake. If you get caught again, ain't no one comin' ta save yer ass. Capiche?"

"A— what?" The term 'capiche' was far and beyond unfamiliar to the wolf tengu pup.

_Sla- slap, slap, slap._ Milla cast an array of papers onto the floor. Organizing them telekinetically, she jumbled them around, solving a puzzle near-instantly. Like so, she created a big, blue pentagram on the floor, with a crescent shape overlayed into it.

_Vhi~r._ It began to glow. This was the spell she wanted to use for the _first_ rite. It came in handy now, at least; and she had _way more practice_ this time around, even if she hadn't planned on using it _here_, for a similar event of all things.

"Just step inta the damn circle." Milla decided. "...An' stop starin' at my boobs, I hardly have any!"

"Aah… sor— sorry—... um… what do I call you?" He gave Milla a questioning look. "You smell nice."

'_Ah. Mom an' her damn perfume— well, anyway…'_

Milla thought on that. _'The fake ass youkai name I used ta go by was Mi… fer y'know, Milla. Would be real obvious if I was like, 'Mi Di Li' or something similar ta my previous last name…'_

'_But, now? Actually…'_

Camilla Mawatari was her current full name. _'Aah. I got it.'_

Milla ushered him towards the magical circle. "Mima. Youkai magician. Catcha 'round, shortstuff."

'_Never gonna see this fucko again, lemme tell ya that. Hoo~h.'_

"Thank you, Mima!" The boy gave her a big nod, and moved for the magical circle.

_VREOUP!_ Instantly, once he was in its midst, his form blurred out, as if the light around him had overtaken him.

'_...Now. Now, we wait. We wait 'till they ask ta send out the victim a' the hour… an' this time, s'gonna be me, ze. Should pro'lly clean up these magical circle papers too.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

"Tonight…"

The ceremony had begun. The Hakurei around the courtyard began to quiet down, in anticipation for the words of Hoshiko.

Anna looked around, tense. Had she been deserted? Where was her daughter? Her— likely— boyfriend?

Henry could hear the quieting of the bustle, as he rested with Milla's body on the rooftops over the main road.

Hoshiko held her arms up. The wooden platform of doom was back out again. This time, two thrones rested on it. Yasuoka sat at his, beholding the crowd. Hoshiko stood on the platform's edge, to speak to the whole of the clan that had— that could— attend. There was only so much space in the courtyard, after all.

"Tonight," Hoshiko beamed at the whole crowd, her serene smile giving way to an impression of genuine happiness and pride. "We shall witness _our daughter_ become a woman. The next leader of the _Hakurei clan_ shall demonstrate her worthiness to us all."

She scanned the clearing. At everyone's respectful silence, she gave them a nod. "Before that… in terms of our progress against the youkai, we have made significant bounds in fortification of what is ours. Our territory expands every day. Myself and my husband were pressed to decide what youkai we would use to exemplify our daughter's abilities. I believe the one we selected will self-demonstrate our progress."

"We again hope you too see what we see in our daughter. Shining magnificence; a beacon for all of us to aspire towards. The true image of a _maiden_ of the _Hakurei_ _clan."_

Before the big wooden platform was a margin of space created by fences of shimmering, white barriers. They were barely visible beyond the soil level, creating a quick-to-fade gradient of shifting, prismatic colors in the air. The audience was perhaps more mesmerized by this phenomena than they should have been.

This clear margin was for Kiyoko, the heir of Hakurei and paradise, to follow through with her second rite. To do battle against a youkai, and kill it.

Kiyoko stood there already. On her waist, she had a sheath for her personal blade. She wore black armor with red-white accents; the standard armor for Hakurei samurai.

"We begin this evening with a show of battle. One which tributes the Hakurei lineage, and the grace it wields, now and forever."

Two lines lit up, to encapsulate the doorway to the nondescript house aside the Hakurei castle's left.

Kiyoko eyed the pathway. It drew entry to the margin in the clearing's midst; the arena she was going to stand her ground within. Hands firm on her katana's hilt, she swallowed.

It could be anything, she figured. Her mother and father could have arranged for her to fight anything. With her luck, it could be a tengu or an oni. Both of which she's only so sparingly seen from afar during patrols with her father, over the past year.

She hoped her mother wasn't too cruel with the selection. If she lost to some mediocre youkai, her life would be as good as over.

It was a stressful world. Kiyoko, on some level, hated how tense this was. She wanted comfort, room to grow.

But, she knew a trial by fire fit her best. She just wished it were on her own terms, even if life did seldom operate like that.

...Hoshiko took pause. The doorway where the tengu pup was to be lead out of was not moving. This process had been rehearsed. If those sent to ensure the process went smoothly screwed it up, there was to be some quick downsizing after the event was over.

Though she smiled, her eyes conveyed a ferocity as she stared down the path. Silence continued, and she was finding it harder to keep smiling. In the worst event, she supposed, she could send her husband in, and she'd buy time.

But, that wasn't necessary.

_BAM!_ The front sliding doorway of the nondescript house was blown open. Only the most observant of eyes would have noticed: the door had summoned into existence at the same time the pathway towards the arena had. It was a clever trick for security's sake.

The door itself came right off its sliding rails, sent flipping across the floor. An armored samurai of moderate rank rolled out, defeated. "Uu— _nngh…"_

"Hmhmhmm~..."

Milla marched outside, humming in the quiet.

Kiyoko wasn't sure what she was looking at, at first. But, the blue— the green hair…

Milla deliberately stepped around the fallen Hakurei samurai, wearing a big, shit-eating grin as she did a jazzy, jaunty stroll up towards the main margin of combat. "La la la~..." She pointed her fingers around in the air, making superficial noises on her way.

Hoshiko's gaze was intent on the neon blue, vibrantly green-haired _thing_ which sauntered out. That wasn't the youkai she'd screened.

Seeing her focused, slightly wide eyes, Milla beamed at Hoshiko, pointed at her, and waved. _"He~ya,_ ma!"

Kiyoko's eyes slowly widened, her jaw dropping.

Anna felt her body freeze in the crowd.

"Yo!" Milla walked up, and into the barrier aside the path towards the mid-courtyard battlefield—

_TING!_ It repelled her, almost sending her back on her ass. _"Woah!_ ...Aw!" Then, she pressed her face against it. "Yo, _Hakurei-momma!_ Yeah— you, wit' the crazy eyes!"

Hoshiko said nothing, but her stare was an answer enough.

"Yeah—" Milla beamed. "Make _ice cream_ free, fer all girls wit' _green hair!"_

...Yasuoka had an intent glare set on her. He was alert now. Something was wrong— and now there was a question of what _else_ could be wrong.

"Hey!" Milla rapped her knuckles on the invisible wall between her and the Hakurei royalty. "If I win, do I like— get a medal, 'er somethin'!? Can I marry yer daughter!?"

Hoshiko's gaze had gained levels of awkward intensity, which only grew as the situation's strangeness escalated.

"You oughta teach _the matin' press_ to yer—..." Milla paused. What was the term? _"Acolytes!?_ Shrine—... _Shrinelings!?_ Little people…!?"

Hoshiko had to take a look back at Yasuoka. Was this _his_ fault?

His glare conveyed that it wasn't, clearly. She looked back at Milla.

"If I win, Kink— Kiyoko's gotta wear a strap-on the rest a' her life!" Milla declared. "No ifs, ands, or buts!"

"Will you _get on with it!?"_ Hoshiko snapped.

Milla laughed. "Pft— nnh— hahahah! Woo~!" She held both middle fingers into the air. "You _mad,_ sis!? Why don'cha come over an' say that to my _face,_ asswipe?"

_Ting!_ Milla walked into the barrier by accident again, in her attempt to look aggressive. "Ow…!"

To her left, Milla saw it. A crude line on the soil, which revealed an encroaching barrier moving to push Milla into the arena proper, at sudden velocity.

"Ooo~!" Milla sprinted for the arena. "Yo— okay, okay! I'll get on wit' it!"

_Fwi— shing._ Milla crossed into the arena proper. The barrier chasing her inside stopped.

...Beaming stupidly, Milla faced the crowd, and held out her arms. "Hakurei shrine maiden? More like Hakurei _ass_ maiden! Pft- nhk- hehehe…" She laughed at her own joke more than she should have.

"You—..." Kiyoko wasn't sure what to _say._

Milla turned to look at her, and grinned. "Heya. Man…"

Slowly, Milla began to stroll towards her. _'I'm really diggin' these boots! They got a good weight ta 'em.'_

"This's like, your like… pre-coronation examination… colonization—... _party_ thing, right?" Milla looked around at the crowd idly, and at the royalty. "Man— you got shops an' stalls that sell _funny lookin' plates,_ but I didn't see any _ice cream._ It's _summer!"_

Kiyoko's glare began to build. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Whaddaya mean?" Milla held her arms out. "I'm enjoyin' the party! Happy birthday! I uh... it's not yer birthday, is it?"

Kiyoko opened her mouth. She was about to say, 'you know when that is', before realizing that'd be a bad idea.

Milla continued to look around, before grinning again. "Man. Leave it ta the Hakurei ta throw a party where everyone's quiet."

"This—..." Kiyoko wasn't sure _what_ to feel, at first.

"I'm tellin' ya." Milla pointed at her. "Ice. Cream. S'the key to everything! Momma hockey-stick wouldn't need all them fancy words, if ya just—"

"_This…!"_ Kiyoko raised her voice. "This— is not a _party._"

Snorting, Milla beamed. "You're tellin' me!"

"This is a _ceremony."_ Kiyoko affirmed. "A rite. A test and a demonstration in one."

"So, like a _quinceanera?"_ Milla guessed. "Don't those have like, music, and hot boys?"

"That's a _spanish tradition,_ you dipshit." Kiyoko had to fight the urge to grin. "That's for the age of fifteen, too. I'm seventeen this year."

"So, like, a _sweet seventeen."_ Milla leaned towards her. "Sounds like _you_ need a hot date, an' a gallon a' vanilla!"

Slowly, Kiyoko unsheathed her blade. Judging by her face, she was becoming angry.

As she proceeded closer, she drew it fully. "You're here to disgrace the ceremony."

Milla leaned her own body back, returning a teasing, glad smile. "No shit? Why, ya think _I'm_ the kinda person ta crash a party?"

"It's not a _party."_ Kiyoko raised her voice further. "This isn't—... this isn't some fucking _game,_ Mill— Mi—..."

"Mima." Milla reached into the air behind herself.

With a flare of light, a huge staff as tall as Milla herself appeared, laid horizontally in the air. Her left arm swiped it up, and she spun it overhead.

In the moonlight and torchlight of the Hakurei gathering, the huge iron crescent now on the tip was big enough to frame all of Milla's face— which she promptly showed off, smiling through it.

"This isn't some _costume party,_ or _pretend."_ Kiyoko asserted herself. "This is my rite. My _blood right._ A stepping stone in my life!"

Milla spun her staff around, and pointed the huge crescent at Kiyoko. "How's about ya buy me a cone, when we're done?"

"To think you'd go this far, _Mima_…" Kiyoko blushed slightly. She felt ashamed, using a name similar to the ones they called one another as kids. "You don't _fucking_ get it. Go the hell away!"

...Milla pursed her lips. "What? Not a fan a' ice cream, no more?"

"This isn't about the _fuckin'_ ice cream!" Kiyoko stomped closer, blade held out. "Okay!? I understand you no longer hold _anything_ sacred— but this is not the time for _ice cream_ or _jokes!_ It's not time to _crack innuendos,_ insult each other's characters—..."

"Next thing ya tell me, it ain't gonna be time ta hit eachother wit'—... silly, made-up attacks." Milla popped a grin at the end of her sentence, as if mocking her.

"It's certainly not time to _have fun with fighting!"_ Kiyoko barked. "I have to _kill—_ the youkai who stepped foot out of that door! These are not _whacky sparring hijinks,_ Mill— Mima! I have to _kill you_ now!"

"...Damn!" Milla leaned back again, as if reeling in the feeling of standing here, teasing her. "Ya really know how ta sell a show, dude!"

Kiyoko seethed. "This isn't a—... this isn't _playtime._ It's not _arguing time._ It's a _foolish time."_

"Pft— hehahaha!" Milla loved it. "We live in foolish times, Kiyoko-chan!"

"_Fuck off!"_ Kiyoko roared. "You're—..."

She looked at the crowd. She looked at her parents.

Hoshiko looked tense. Her smile looked obviously strained; her face daring herself to grimace.

Kiyoko met Milla's sneer again.

"Fine." Kiyoko's body shook with nervous energy and anger. "Fine. I'll _kill you_, and bury the memory with you. You freed the youkai I would have met, didn't you? I'll find them, and kill them too. You leave me no other choice."

Milla rolled her eyes. "Or ya could admit how fuckin' stupid all this fancy shmancy 'rite' bullshit is."

Kiyoko glared. "Is bringing everything down to a state of abject entropy all you're good for?"

Milla snorted. "A state a' who what? Y'kiss yer mother wit' that mouth?"

"You _motherfucking—"_ Kiyoko began to close the distance with Milla. "Leave my dream _alone,_ you stupid piece of shit!"

Milla wanted to say something back. But, this far along, this deep into the argument— and with the threat of violence at hand— tracing the details back was less than easy.

'_I know I'm not a hypocrite. There's some context— right, it's about how her dream's too fuckin' unrealistic. She doesn't see how it's just gonna hurt herself—'_

_CLACK!_ Milla stopped Kiyoko's katana from simply flailing down into herself, with the broad steel of her blue alloy staff.

"I'll admit it…" Milla conceded a point. "I just kinda charged in here."

"Of course." Kiyoko shook her head. "Now my life is _ten times harder—_ and it's all your fault. You've done irreparable damage as it is, I'm sure."

"I wasn't lettin' opportunity slip me by." Milla asserted herself too. "We gave up last year. We were weak little bitches last year. At least this time— we can both fight for what we _believe in."_

...At least, Kiyoko felt she could agree on that.

_CLICK!_ She raised her blade from Milla's staff, and stepped back. "...We will step to opposite sides of the margin. After a few moments pass, we will begin."

Milla supposed she'd cooperate. "Fancy. They call this the Hakurei dosey-doe, or somethin'?"

"Fuck you." Kiyoko began to back up.

Milla giggled under her breath. "...What? Ah— shit, I had another one on the tip a' my tongue. I forgot it."

Saying nothing, Kiyoko kept distancing herself.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

The two girls parted, moving to opposite ends of the clearing.

Anna had no idea what she was watching. The exchange between the two implied familiarity. But, Milla couldn't have known the heir ever, right? She would have said _something_ about it, surely.

Hoshiko and Yasuoka sized up Milla from their respective places. Hoshiko herself moved for her throne, where she'd observe the combat.

She spoke quiet enough for only Yasuoka to hear. "Let it commence. If she fails here, she is not worthy."

Yasuoka had no intention of letting them stop to begin with. "Mmh."

Now at opposite ends, the two seemed to ready themselves. Kiyoko took practice motions at the air, whole body stiff, and eyes hard.

"Woo~!" Milla danced. "Hehehehe…!" She slowly took one step forward at a time, pointing out a single finger from an alternating arm with each step.

Kiyoko didn't know what this meant, but it for some reason annoyed her.

Then, Kiyoko began to march towards the center.

'_Aah. Startin' now, are we?'_ Milla figured. _'...If ya lose this, you're good as dead anyway, right?'_

'_Guess I'm not gonna be holdin' back. Let's see what new shit ya've concocted in the few months we've been apart.'_

Milla broke into a sprint, eye's wide. "Let's _do this shit! Kiyoko-cha~n!"_

With that, Kiyoko broke from a walk, into a sprint.

Kiyoko ran faster. Far faster. _'Woah, holy shit—'_

"_Neo Aurora Star!"_ Milla cast a whole arm outward. A single, violet shuriken made loops in the air as it arced out for Kiyoko.

_Fwish!_ A single talisman rocketed out to meet it.

_KRAPOP- POP- POP!_ It exploded like a firework, the shuriken becoming a massive, similarly-shaped flare of magic in the air. Its geometry was unlike anything the crowd had seen, lighting up the whole arena.

Milla spun around, expecting Kiyoko to teleport.

She was right. Kiyoko was there, dragging her katana along the floor.

"_Blast off!"_ Kiyoko slung it to try and rocket Milla into the air—

Now, sliding along Kiyoko's right, Milla's face snapped into a wide smile, one which didn't reach her eyes amidst the sudden intensity. _"Paradox Blade!"_

_WHI- WHI- WHISH!_ As Milla spun around, four pure-white clones of her silhouette revolved out from her, arcing their staves through the air in identical motions, as if swinging swords.

"_Hup!"_ Kiyoko leapt away from the revolving storm of Milla clones, avoiding the wide, blade-like ranges of their staves.

Then, Milla lurched down. Her left arm shook, pain spiking up it— she was flooding it with mana.

"_Branching Power!"_ She spun wildly, reeling up a massive uppercut as she did so—

Kiyoko was behind her suddenly, as she anticipated, at an awkward angle. Milla threw her fist up, but it didn't matter if it actually hit Kiyoko or not.

'_This one's momma's cookin'!'_

_KABOOM- BOOM- BOOM- BOOM!_ When Milla uppercut the air, a hurricane of terrible proportions was ushered forth.

Lines of plasma erupted from the soil, dirt and rock flying through the air as the green-white light seemed to grow like trees from the floor itself. Bouncing, unstable reactions bounded around within the arena's field, flooding the whole battlefield with terrain-destroying light.

"_Ough!"_ Kiyoko rolled around, trying to weave around amidst the sudden flourish of destructive magic.

_BOOM!_ An orb met her in the gut—

_SHINK!_ A crescent-tip slung by a Milla silhouette passed through her midsection, making a splash of blood in the air. _"Nngh—"_

Milla floated over the battlefield. _'How's this shit fer ya— Kink—'_

Kiyoko was overhead of Milla now, in the air. Milla hadn't thought she'd dare to join her in the sky.

"_Blast!"_ Kiyoko slung her katana down, the sky parted by azure afterimages from her swift ferocity.

_SHUNK!_ The blade met Milla's spine. _"Huu—"_

_KABOOM!_ They were both sent roaring into the floor like rocks. On impact, the multi-story impact caused Milla's body to flare with brilliant, prismatic power. Her mana itself had lashed out on its own, reacting to her pain. _'Fuuuck!'_

"_Ouuwh!"_ Kiyoko was awash with pain, as she flew across the clearing, launched by the rainbow boom.

But, she knew, that should be enough. Milla didn't liken to healing magic typically— a huge logistical mistake, she found. This encounter was just about over.

_Bam!_ Bouncing off her back on the ground, Kiyoko rolled into a kneel, and stood. "He— heal…" She thrust her katana into the air, and summoned faith to her own muscles.

Milla floated into the air, her body ragged. Her neon-blue dress and skirt were now all torn, and her sun symbol-accented hat had fallen off.

"_Moonlight Healing!"_ Milla thrust her palm up at the moon. Then, a column of teal light enveloped her.

'_Yeah— s'not just you anymore, bitch! Playin' on an even field now!'_

Kiyoko inhaled. She saw the bands of light curl around Milla's form, whose body shuddered in relief, the gash in her back healing.

Then, Kiyoko was gone again.

"_Frag-Rocket!"_ Milla went straight up, unable to assume what direction Kiyoko would emerge from—

_BOOM!_ She shot her 'rocket' straight down. _"Uuh— aagh!"_ Kiyoko's pained roar, and the splatter of blood confirmed the impact.

_SHUNK!_ That's when a katana shot through Milla's chest. _"Huu— ooh— shit…"_

Milla spun around, one arm on the katana to keep it stuck inside. _"Misch— hk— Mischievous Star!"_

_Fwii~sh!_ She unleashed her bag of marbles. Except, it didn't stop.

A veritable river of ominous, grey-white bouncing orbs began to flood the arena, as Milla let go of the bag, which went off to do its own thing.

_SHUNK!_ Despite her grip, the katana ripped itself from Milla's chest. _"Huu— hkoo—"_

"_Blast!"_ Kiyoko descended from above again, smashing Milla into the floor—

_KABOOM!_ Milla detonated again on impact, launching Kiyoko—

She landed in the spreading sea of marbles.

"_Aaaa~gh!"_ The sea of bouncing, star-esque marbles began to chip away at Kiyoko's clothing and skin as she skidded around. She was force to spin with hilarious velocity, doing innumerable spinning twirls before being planted firmly on her ass amidst them. _"God—... aaa~gh— nnrgh…!"_

"_He— nnh— hehe—..."_ Milla stood up, the teal moon magic still working on her body. "Welcome— to_ hell!_ _Cavitation Beam—"_

The messy spreadshot of deadly, flesh-gorging lasers sailed ahead for no one.

Kiyoko was above again, when Milla looked up. _'Predictable…!'_

"_Poltergeist!"_ Milla thrust her staff's tip up.

_KABOOM!_ A malformed, orange-purple rocket exploded beneath Kiyoko. Her chest was blown open by this first impact, her blood staining Milla's blue outfit.

_BOOMBOOMBAMBOOMBLAMBLAMBLAM!_ It became an entire revolving ring of smaller fragmentation rockets on impact. They snapped up, enveloping Kiyoko's form with magical violence.

As the blood and bits poured down, Milla blew her a kiss. "And you're _set free."_ Her arm flourished outward, to gesture to the crowd.

'_Was—'_ Milla didn't think that was it. She looked up.

There were barriers in the air. Kiyoko had saved herself from being gibbed by the magic ordinance.

_SHUNK!_ Her blade punctured Milla's chest from behind. _"Uugh—" _Kiyoko was now behind her.

"_You— mock me…"_ Kiyoko seethed, her offhand gripping Milla's neck.

_SHINK!_ Drawing the katana from Milla's back, whose stomach slowly poured out in the process, Kiyoko tossed her.

_Thud!_ Milla rolled across the clearing. _'Ho— holy— fuck—'_

Kiyoko stumbled around. Faith healing had restored her chest and its bone, but the pain was still vibrant, explosive.

_Hakurei god,_ she prayed. _If you can hear me—..._

'_Look at the way she's stumblin'...'_

Milla's throat burned, and she felt a huge headache. The price of her moonlit healing aura, she supposed. _'Fucking moon magic…'_

"I— haven't even used— a _third_ a' my arsenal…" Milla beamed. "What's wrong?"

Kiyoko shut her eyes.

Then, she floated into the air. White light began to envelop her being.

'_Wait—... she can't fly. Unless, she can now, but—'_

"Mima…" Kiyoko uttered. "You will not forget this maiden's power."

"_Galvanic Ray!"_ Milla spun her staff forward.

Huge, clumpy, lime-yellow blotches of electricity flew forward.

They were again unlike anything most spectating had witnessed before; just looking at it made people think their eyes had temporary blindspots, like the kind one'd get in their peripheral vision from staring at a light, or the sun, for too long. That was how these electric glops felt to look at.

A yin-yang orb enveloped Kiyoko's form, translucent at first, then becoming opaque.

_KRAZAPZAPZAPZAP- ZZZZ!_ The electricity was potent enough to melt through wooden structures, or vaporize flesh into nothing, and the spread was wide enough to wipe out a whole samurai squad.

Yet, as it met the orb, nothing happened. The orb was stronger than all of that, well-defined and bright as it spun in the air.

The blessing of the _Hakurei god._ The yin-yang orb.

Kiyoko spun her sword around inside the orb, afterimages of it drawing a circle in the air.

"**You are not worthy as my opponent."**

In an instant, Kiyoko thrust her katana into Milla's gut, past all of the magic.

_BOOM- SPLACK!_ Milla's ribcage was partially blown from her body. That was the magnitude of this thrust.

_BOOM!_ Otherworldly pain flooded her. There was no room for thoughts— it was beyond words. The greatest sting, beyond mortal application of the blade.

"Mmgh—" Milla was drinking the elixir she brought before she knew it— if only to make the pain _go away._ Such incredible pain.

_BOOM! FWAASH! FWAASH!_ Pillars of holy, pearl-colored judgment erupted in Milla's trail as she ran around, rolled around, and flew to try and avoid Kiyoko.

As her body improved enough for her to talk, she opened her mouth—

_CLINK!_ One of Milla's silhouettes stopped Kiyoko from tearing her a new one upfront, parrying one of Kiyoko's swings.

_KABOOM!_ Kiyoko thrust her katana into it, and blew its torso straight off its spine. White that should have been blood were it an actual being exploded into the air, and then it was gone.

'_Holy fuck...'_

Kiyoko's body billowed with holy magic; the Hakurei god's blessing answering its chosen in her time of need.

_SMAAAA~SH!_ Her katana met Milla's gut. _"Ughkh—"_ It was a strike of her katana's flat.

_BAM!_ Milla bounced off the floor so hard, even as her body healed, the sheer impact began to undo the aid.

Kiyoko's piercing white eyes were visible amidst the clutter, blood and magic.

"_Milla—"_ Kiyoko spoke with an echo. _"You are without faith."_

Milla sneered back. "...You the Hakurei god? Or's she just—"

"Woah!" Milla weaved aside another stinging katana thrust— the kind that'd leave the lasting sting of a blasted ribcage. "Yo! Ee— earth to Kink!"

"_My faith— heals all wounds."_ Kiyoko remarked simply.

"...How 'bout— we test that out, then!?" Milla sneered again.

She ascended into the air. Kiyoko vanished as she did so.

They continually weaved around one another's forms, movements quick, vague and wild.

"With yer first step—" Milla released her staff, which floated in the air alongside herself. "—you will _BURN!"_

_KABOOM!_ The red silhouette of a european dragon's head and neck roared through Kiyoko's form.

As the fire vaporized Kiyoko's flesh, rendering it ash and cinder, cracks of orange replacing her body's blood vessels—

"_Heal!"_ Kiyoko didn't care. She thrust her katana into the air mid-ascent, pouring her faith into her own body. She wasn't going to lose.

"_Moonlight Healing!"_ Milla reaffirmed her own magic, ascending after her to finish the job—

_Clong._ As they clumsily slipped past one another in the air, Milla bonked Kiyoko's forehead with her staff.

'_Not— quite what I wanted, but—'_

Kiyoko rolled past her, and slung her katana deliberately— she was about to thrust into Milla again.

While she wound up a deadly thrust, Milla took the time to waste some time.

"An' I'm going to pla~y, with…" Milla pretended to stand on the air, aiming her finger around as if choosing from multiple pets. _"You!"_ Beaming in faux-adoration, she pointed at Kiyoko—

_WOOSH!_ Kiyoko pumped herself through the air atop a self-created barrier platform.

"_Reflect!"_ Milla yelled as Kiyoko roared closer.

_TING!_ A single, hexagonal plate charged with all the magic Milla could muster met Kiyoko's thrusting katana tip.

The katana shot out of Kiyoko's hands. Across the sky, past the Hakurei Castle, far and beyond the village's bounds.

"A~nd it's a _home run!" _Milla kicked at a non-existent home plate in the air. "Yeehaw!"

Kiyoko had Milla by the collar. _"You—"_ White light poured from her mouth, obscuring her features. _"Fucking—"_

_WOOSH!_ They both plummeted for the floor together, fighting to see who'd crush who—

"_Space Debris!"_ Milla planted a palm on Kiyoko's chest—

_KABOOM!_ Suddenly, a big-bang of rocks and crap erupted out, displacing Kiyoko entirely. _"Wh— aaa~h!"_

Then, as she ascended, Kiyoko caught her own katana mid-air. It came back, having sailed across the air space again.

'_What—'_ Milla was staring straight up at the glimmer of Kiyoko's steel.

"_BLAST!"_ Kiyoko roared down with certain velocity.

Milla tried to lean out of the way. _"Electrolyzer—"_

_SHUNK!_ The blade got Milla's spirit body in one arm—

Wet lightning poured down from above, snapping to Kiyoko's form.

_KRAK- KRAKOOM!_ It met Kiyoko's blade instead of her body, becoming trapped there as she raised it from Milla's new shoulder wound. _"Nnn~!"_ Mouth open, eyes wide, Kiyoko slung the blade overhead messily. _"He— hahahaha!"_

_CLANK- BAM!_ Before she could finish Milla simply by flicking it down, Milla stroked her _Rampage Blade _into it.

_KABOOM!_ Both blades were tossed from one another's grasps.

"_Hup!"_ Milla used her gift of flight to flip backward before she hit the floor.

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko faceplanted. _"Uu— hugh…"_

"Pft—" Milla was stunned. "Wh—... ooh. Walk much?"

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko's hand was now in the back of Milla's scalp. In an instant, she helped Milla's face to the floor. _"Imbecile…"_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

_KRAK- KASPLACK!_ Milla's gut was blown from her body for the sixth time. _"Oo— oowh- nnh—"_ She was crying— from pain, laughter, anger…

"_You're—"_ Kiyoko was gashed all over. _"—not worthy—..."_ Stopping, she thrust her katana up. "He—... heal."

_Fwoash. _White light flourished through her body again, making her black hair billow in the faux breeze of rejuvenation.

Milla exhaled, as her own flesh and blood reformed. Being a spirit and not actually a biological human helped with these things. Kiyoko might not have realized it, but Milla was feeding off the moon's power with her healing magic as well. An _Ikiryou_ was a youkai, after all, which made doing so even easier.

"Fire—... boom!" Milla thrust a palm forward.

_Boom!_ A flare of fire met Kiyoko's face, charring it vaguely. _"Kauh—"_ She coughed up some smoke, stumbling back.

'_What the fuck is Kinky made out of, though…?'_

After the first semi-lethal blow Milla had landed— either minutes or hours ago— Kiyoko had called upon some kind of seismic holy power. However, as the fight had deteriorated, Kiyoko only seemed to be abusing her downward cleaves and exploding sword thrusts.

Milla herself was actually out of meaningful or new techniques. In her random application of them, they'd all fallen short some way or another.

'_We're… all so bad at actually kickin' ass— and too turtled up— that we can't actually fucking kill each other… not unless we get lucky and land enough shit all at once.'_

'_It's a goddamn eternal back and forth. She sure as shit can't land more than one good hit on me… and all my meltin' magic is too easy for her to dodge.'_

Then, Kiyoko shut her eyes.

"This…" She snapped then open. "I see it…"

A white, unknown shape of pentagram bloomed under her. As the blood trickled down both their scalps, and Kiyoko rejuvenated, something became known to her.

She smiled, and stroked her blade wayward in the air again. Then, she unleashed it. _"Hyah!"_

Milla blinked. _'...Something bad happened. What—... was—...'_

_SHUNK! KRAK- KASPLACK!_ From afar, with a flick of her wrist, as if tossing a knife instead of a katana, Kiyoko plunged her katana through Milla's chest, creating another blood explosion.

An instant sphere of perfect cuts laid into Milla's form in the next instant.

"_The final judgment— is nigh!"_ Kiyoko flourished into the air, and unleashed her limbs.

_FWOAA~SH!_ A megalithic white pillar enveloped Milla. It was five meters in diameter; a cylinder of pearl stretching straight into the air.

It was bright enough to envelop the whole clearing with its glow, and the surrounding Hakurei village.

...When it faded in an instant, Kiyoko dropped onto her knees. She stabbed her katana into the soil, to prop herself up some.

She wanted to sleep. The white of the Hakurei god's aura began to drain from her body. The fighting was over. The youkai was bested, and this was the god's message that their power was no longer needed.

The god favored those who performed skillfully in combat against youkai; and this was one such time.

Some day, she'd have to find a way to seal that spirit form of Milla's off for good. But, until that day… these encounters would only be getting more intrusive and annoying.

...With the blood on her face, from her own head pains, and from Milla's guts, Kiyoko parted her wet bangs.

Hoshiko sat in open-mouthed, vague awe.

Yasuoka had his brows raised, since nearly the beginning of the spectacle.

Anna had a regretful look. It had varied remorse and disdain; as well as fear. Was Milla alright?

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

'_Yeah. It's— it was my spirit form, 'course I'm alright. Still…'_

"Da~mn." Milla spread out on her bed, in her room at the complex. "That Kinky's a real _hardass,_ huh?"

_You know, I might've run out of power 'cause Henry started runnin' on empty, at some point. We fought for a long ass time…'_

Anna's mouth was still ajar. "When you wanted to get strong— I didn't think you were going to _challenge the Hakurei heir to a duel to the death._ What is wrong with you!?"

Milla snorted, and grinned. "Mmm? Lotsa things…"

"I want to die." Henry expended all of his energy. He was now out of strength, and the day had ended.

Feeling lumpified, Milla nodded. "Then die fer me…"

"Don't worry. You'll be listed as the cause of death." He stumbled for a chair. "Go— gods…"

'_Mmnn…'_

'_I wonder how pissed Kinky'll be about that.'_

Milla hadn't exactly thought forward this far, but…

'_I'm strong enough ta tell most samurai ta fuck on off. They fight hard— but they don't fight as hard as Kinky there. Also— Hakurei typically gotta like, rely on a specific healer maiden or like, someone. Kiyoko herself's the whole damn package.'_

'_And, you know… samurai specialize in closing distance and head-on fights. I excel in makin' distance and head-off fights! If— if that's a term! Wasn't ever hard to outlast the bastards. Especially 'cause they always got this level a' hardened unfamiliarity and clumsiness; they're in suits of armor. They can't always watch where they step.'_

'_I'm thinkin' this, 'cause I doubt Kiyoko's gonna take the shit I pulled there lyin' down. If she wants to escalate this shit, I'd be more than welcome ta play along...'_

"Hey…" Milla lazily cast her gaze over to Henry. "If I healed ya— would ya be able ta fuck more?"

Henry's gaze was flat. "...I— wouldn't _actually_ know. What— the past _hour _of focused sexual energy not enough for you?"

"Hey— I had my hands tied..." Milla protested. "Me— metaphorically, I mean. Fightin' Kinky— I make it look easy, but she's some kinda, like… superhero!"

'_Thought it was real weird she was layin' off on her magic for most of the fight. She used to have like… weird techniques, where she'd empower us with yin-yang shields like the kind she used in the last fight. They'd be partial defense, but y'know… it's way better than nothin'!'_

'_But, when she used it now— it was complete fuckin' defense. After that, she went all out with the deadly-ass holy pillars.'_

'_She doesn't get too extra with the barriers, though. She makes herself platforms, an' that seems to be it… aside from blockin' all my rockets that one time. Was sure I fuckin' had her, there.'_

"Tomorrow—... will probably be interesting, for you." Henry figured.

Milla closed her eyes. "Nnn. I bet…"

'_My heart was beatin' so hard back there. Adrenaline in the middle a' battle's great… it's a real high.'_

There wasn't a whole lot she could do tonight, at this rate.

'_I'm… so tired…'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

That evening, the second rite of Kiyoko Hakurei had concluded the ceremony.

Normally, it would have gone on longer— but the intensity and length of the battle had caused it to be drawn to a swift conclusion. As for what the ramifications of it would be, Kiyoko wasn't sure. To her knowledge, her parents were pleased with her display. She probably wouldn't truly know for the next week, she was sure.

After she'd been let loose into the royal quarters by her mother, Kiyoko instantly went to the room of prayer.

Kneeling down, palms together, Kiyoko followed the procedure to communicate with the Hakurei god.

This prayer room, located deep within the royal quarters, went relatively unused by her mother. She lead prayers with the public in more accessible spaces, when she did so, and the clan in general had a general ethic to its prayer.

Kiyoko studied her faith often in this central spire of the castle. Faith also had a place in her other studies, but there was a certain place she was usually proctored to practice elsewhere in the castle.

This was not that place. Her mother had thrown together this prayer chamber with her money for appearances. Despite this, it had a lot of everything necessary.

'_In my diligent study, I've spoken with the Hakurei god on occasions, offered it my faith and worship.'_

'_I need to talk to it again, if only to thank them. That last fight… it had seen my courage on the battlefield. It rewarded me with powers both familiar to me, from my previous studies in faith, and newfound power.'_

The yin-yang shield. When she was younger, playing her tricks on the village with Milla, she'd called it _Psychic Shield._

The pillars of cleansing judgment, which she'd originally dubbed _Psychic Judgment._ They were her favorite favor of god, one she'd realized just before her previous coming of age rite. In the previous battle, she used them to excess, and they were more powerful than they'd ever been.

'_Spiritual Shield, and Judgment.'_ Kiyoko half-consciously renamed them, cringing internally at her younger self's names for them.

She waited here, in the midst of the prayer room.

Candles around her glowed a warm tint, set up in a particular circle around the room. Specific talismans hung from altars which held yin-yang orbs atop them.

Despite her bruises, and the heavy mental exhaustion from her faith healing, she sat here, intent on calling the gods.

'_If only to thank them for the boost, back then.'_

Incense burned nearby herself. She'd already done many steps of purification, but she wanted to be additionally sure for this particular ceremony that she was pure enough to exempt her state of wear. It was important to be of good health when speaking to the gods.

'_We often refer to 'gods', with the implication that there are more than one. Because, there are.'_

The Hakurei primarily worshipped the namesake of their clan, the Hakurei god. But, they also respected a few deities who gave their blessings to the whole nation, more or less. The god Inari, a patron of swordsmithing and merchantry, among other interpretations. The god Hachiman, who favored archery and war.

'_While other gods may see small-time worship amongst the village, those three are those we accept the most. Obviously, it'd be somewhat heretical to deny the blessings of the Hakurei god here.'_

Before entering here, Kiyoko had chanted the purification blessing, and cleansed her hands. Now, she waited.

The setup here was parts esoteric, exclusive knowledge, and parts common sense. Some aspects are only taught to the leaders of faith; Hoshiko, high-ranking maidens, and herself. Other common preparation steps are customary to anyone who prays in a shrine.

As candles and incense burned, Kiyoko meditated on crossed legs.

Her mind began to clear, as she pushed her worries and thoughts away— motivated additionally by her wear. She'd fought for so long, focusing on the gods became easier than normal. As before, she'd found a veritable merit to having physically exerted herself.

'_There's mental benefits. Just depends on how you look at it.'_ Being half-exhausted made it easy to fixate on only one thing.

In the center of the room, she'd drawn a magical symbol of holy. It was similar to the one used by her _Judgment_ pillar technique. It itself was a symbol drawn amidst combat with simple light magic, and the prayer called upon the Hakurei god's holy ferocity.

It would judge youkai for the user. However, the faith incantation took a lot of mana and focus, and unique context. Should one's offering be insufficient, or their need minimal, the gods would not answer, and the caster would be out of their mana.

The evening was still, the dimly lit room warm with tame lights.

'_Don't be afraid. You'll feel them. You can speak when you follow the rites of respect.'_

Gods were beings far above humans. One would be doomed to a life of misery, if they disrespected the gods grievously.

Then, she realized. _'...Be afraid, but respect them in spite of it. Let the fear stifle itself. The charisma will come to you. Remember what you've seen.'_

With her eyes closed, she felt it.

Her body paused. Her emotions welled; comfort, anxiety, tire and stillness.

The candles changed. She could 'see' it through her eyelids, the light became different.

'_Don't open your eyes until you are told.'_

She felt the unique feeling; the presence of godly spirits. Like how one could sense the presence of youkai, she felt the presence of the gods.

The sign would be when the candles became white. Right now, she could tell by her eyelids they were a formal blue.

'_There are certain incantations for calling upon specific gods. In this scenario, it's somewhat more general.'_

As such, she hadn't needed to call their names. This _was_ only a prayer to thank them, after all.

Stillness. A state of trance and relaxation, of clear-mindedness which Kiyoko seldom saw outside of this act.

Then, in a moment of clarity, she felt the candles become white.

Kiyoko opened her eyes carefully, amidst the candlelight.

At first, the white filled her vision and dazzled her. Then, her eyes adjusted to the dim room.

Someone whose form was pure white stood before her, in the midst of the circle drawn.

'_I—'_ Kiyoko stared at it intently. She could _see_ a presence so vividly? Typically, the god would be quite decided in if it even chose to relay a sign, or speak a message. _'I've never actually lead one of these ceremonies before. Is this what the person enacting it sees?'_

She was somewhat interested, in the wisps of white which accented the room's sides. They swirled and filled the airspace, some casting flowing, prismatic color onto the nearby walls.

"Stand up." The person before Kiyoko spoke to her. "...It is okay to stand."

Kiyoko wasn't sure if she should say anything back or not. Slowly, she did as she was told…

"You called on us, to offer your gratitude." The figure standing before Kiyoko was the Hakurei god.

As they were nearly pure white, their clothing was hard to discern. Kiyoko came to realize it wore a woven chest piece, and some manner of kimono or robe beneath it. They had pants inside the kimono, and a woven cloth which contained their face from being seen.

This was the often cited appearance of the god Hakurei, which Kiyoko was told about. This figure, while parts plain, held a gravity to it Kiyoko couldn't describe.

Instead of casting a shadow, its being emitted light all around it. It was an obvious outcome of its existence, Kiyoko supposed, but it stuck in her mind.

"It is also fit to speak." The Hakurei god informed her, as she began to stand fully. "I do not ask you maintain any ceremony in doing so. You do not have anything to directly request of me, after all."

'_Does—... do certain practices—... demand a formality?'_ Kiyoko honestly hadn't expected to _see_ or be _spoken to_ by the Hakurei god.

"Um…" Kiyoko mentally grilled herself for her first word being meaningless.

"_Aah."_ There was a different voice. _"She's a rather cute girl, isn't she?"_ It was one of a young girl, but she spoke with practiced ease that implied age.

"With a steel heart." A man's voice came from Kiyoko's right.

On the left, the pure-white silhouette of the god Inari formed.

Hachiman, conversely, appeared as an older man on Kiyoko's right, rising from a seated posture.

With all three of them here, light ran up the walls like ink. White paint, except it left no stains, running up the shoji and beams. It cast light, filling Kiyoko's vision with nets of environment-defying grey and white.

It was as if ink ran through the air itself, a haze of conceptual color clouding her vision as she beheld the gods. Inari shined fiercely bright, making her ordained appearance difficult to behold.

The god Hachiman glowed gold-white; the gold being the armor he wore. Kiyoko could meet his gaze, but chose not to; she didn't want to know what formality meeting another god's gaze would entail.

Instead, she leveled her eyes with the cloth which hid the Hakurei god's.

"Tha—" This was the source of her powers. The source of her clan. "Thank you. I—... I wanted to thank you."

The Hakurei god gave her a nod. "Your faith and conviction to the clan is appreciated. Do not think your attentiveness and courage has gone unnoticed."

"Though she is a woman," Hachiman admitted, commenting, "she is mighty indeed. She could use discipline."

This was true, the Hakurei god confirmed with a nod. "She is unpracticed. Still but a child, in the world's wiles. I can feel great things from her being."

"_I admit, I am puzzled."_ Inari panned 'her' gaze to Hakurei. _"Some existences are truly a candle's flare. It satisfies me, yet also instills a want. Such a fleeting desire drives my imagination."_ She faced Kiyoko again.

Kiyoko swallowed. She felt put on the spot…

Then, she bowed deeply. She wasn't sure what to say. "I'm—... I— I'll practice. Discipline— I mean—"

"You will know it yourself, when the time comes." Hakurei decided. "You needn't fear me. I am enemy to youkai."

Somehow, those words were like clouds. Even in the evening sky over the castle, Kiyoko felt she could _feel_ clouds overlaying the deep blue. It soothed her anxiety, making her feel more at ease.

"Indeed. The foundation is there." Hachiman agreed. "I was skeptical."

"_Hakurei, though small, isn't to be disrespected."_ Inari spoke to Hachiman. _"So I'd like to believe."_

"I speak with many others." Hachiman argued. "Pardon our disrespect, Hakurei."

It wasn't like Hakurei would be in the right to chastise them for their attitudes. "More importantly," it focused on Kiyoko. "This girl."

"_Yes, excuse me."_ Inari focused on Kiyoko further. _"We— at least, I— will be watching Kiyoko Hakurei. I am interested."_

Hachiman had to agree. "Warriors of faith outperform those without. With the dwindling of conflict, I will have more time to spare for outliers like this maiden here."

"My faithful are often the exception." Hakurei stated, with variable pride. "Though not every generation is remarkable, we've had remarkable generations."

This seemed to be a sentiment all could resonate with.

Somehow, the god had filled Kiyoko with a giddy warmth. Even amidst the candles, in this darkest hall of the castle, her heart fluttered, and she smiled with a feeling that was unique.

'_What—... what is this happiness? I feel… I feel good. If I could trap this moment in time…'_

Hakurei centered their gaze on Kiyoko. "To not leave anything unclear… indeed. You called upon my powers when you needed them the most. It is nothing irregular. You call me whenever you reposition yourself. You do so when you craft talismans. You do so to craft the barriers of light I am known for."

Hakurei barriers. Panes of faith and light which could act as a shield, but also a wall. Potentially, unstoppable force, with the right creativity. Faithful defense, and a crushing advantage.

Talismans called upon Hakurei's power to directly smite and scorn youkai with its power. It would weaken them, counteracting their existence with the god's influence.

"However…" The Hakurei god leaned forward, only slightly. "I favor those of conviction. I favor those of brave combat against youkai. Conviction is meaningless without the means and will to see it to its end."

If Kiyoko continued to demonstrate her worth on the battlefield, and if she continued to follow her dream, she _would _excel. This was the god's declaration, as Kiyoko interpreted it.

"I understand." The words flowed out of Kiyoko's mouth like silk, as she basked in the presence of the gods. "I will continue."

Kiyoko realized, the Hakurei god would accent her efforts. It would not propose itself through individuals of lacking. It served those who it favored the best. As such, its power would best be used if she was giving her all.

Which, coincidentally, reminded her of something.

'_Mother.'_

"My mother…" Kiyoko began. "Does she fit your vision?"

Hakurei's reply was prompt. "Her power is the purest. That alone does not mean she retains my favor or blessing. Though she uses what I do grant her with ease, the power she calls is not that which I offer."

The implication was that the Hakurei god's power could be drawn from, as if it were a pool. The god could influence how big a bucket one had to do so, in essence.

That was all Hakurei had to say about the matter.

'_...I've given them my thanks. And…'_ Considering the act of _meeting_ the Hakurei god— among the other gods, as well— was rarely preceded, Kiyoko wasn't sure how to wrap this up herself.

"I don't know what else to say." Kiyoko was honest. "Except to thank you again, for your aid."

"There is no need." Hakurei confirmed. "You may show your further support by caring for this clan. Do not forget that, as some of your predecessors have."

Kiyoko bowed deeply again.

With that, the Hakurei god turned around. The meeting was short overall; understandably so, as a human and their god had little to say to each other while maintaining a respectful air to the conversation.

Inari smiled, but it was too brilliant for even Kiyoko to behold directly. _"You're interesting. Just don't let it go to your head, and you may find prosperity yet."_

Hachiman returned to sitting, crossing his legs. "We'll see her conviction in battle as well, I'm sure. She's not _fought_, yet."

Inari panned her smile to him. _"...Just be careful."_

Then, in a blink, the candles became red, and the room became dark. The white, inky liquid which ran up the walls had vanished as if it were never there, and the air space ceased to be vague.

...Kiyoko sat down, sliding onto her knees, heart pumping. When Hakurei had left, so did the essence of ease which came about the room, and her anxiety spiked back up again.

'_Gods…'_

She considered earlier that day, when she fought Milla for what felt like an entire hour. Exploding her rib cage, attempting to sever limbs, seeing the _fear_ in her eyes.

'_It's a novel-esque cliche… but that fear was satisfying. It was deserved. She sought to ruin all I had built— or planned, at least— for her ill-concocted, shitty ideas. That fear was her backing down, if only for a moment.'_

'_Some understandings can only be made through violence. There's nothing more real than being destroyed. Even if you can't make someone understand— sometimes they can't— violence is… a sometimes necessary shortcut.'_

As there was no way to make youkai or criminals understand the brilliance of life or the variable misdeeds of their actions, it was likewise impossible to make someone fundamentally flawed in their reasoning understand her thinking in a timely manner.

Kiyoko stood. She left her blade outside the room, so as to not disrespect the gods. Not that it _particularly_ mattered when she could summon it— and do so using the power of the gods she was actively speaking to— but it was because of the symbolism _having_ a weapon present exuded.

'_Of course, violence is also necessary to protect myself, when others believe I'm worthless, or that their thinking is above mine. Logic is logic, but at the end of the day, the better logic is dictated by the sword. You can't argue and ramble when you're dead.'_

Shaking with excited energy, Kiyoko strolled from the room. In the lounge-like area before the ceremony room, there was an altar, some couches, and a shelf where she placed her sword.

'_I can't let myself synonymize being right with being strong. Yet…'_

Instead, her plain katana was not on the shelf. It was stabbed into the floor, the sheath lying nearby, abandoned.

It took a few seconds of staring at this for her to realize just how strange this was.

_Shink._ Pulling the blade from the wood, she gave its metal a close look. As she held it, a faint gold-white energy emanated from it, just barely bright enough to be made out in the dim candlelight of this lounge room.

"...Thank you." Kiyoko held onto the hilt with both hands. The gods have left a cute parting gift; her first katana was now blessed, touche with holy magic. A process otherwise complex and expensive, done as a complementary handwave from the divine.

'_I want to make the weak and misguided kneel. I want to show them all just how strong I really am.'_

'_I want to run and jump— to say mean things— to explore strange places, and prove to my clan and to the youkai that they're all… stupid. Muted. Trite. Jaded. Our samurai are not inventive, and if that, not gifted. Our men and maidens are superficial, unambitious, or stifled by those around them who are more unoriginal than they are.'_

Kiyoko marched to the edge of the lounge area, almost forgetting her sheathe, before pausing.

'_I have much to still learn. I'm not going to learn it, with what little time I have to myself. With the doctrine my mother Hoshiko has decided for me. I will not be some political figurehead. Nor will I be a silent horse to be beaten, like my father.'_

'_By my hands… this land will be protected.'_

Kiyoko left the sheath there, and continued outside with her live blade.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

The next morning, Kiyoko was up early. Golden sun crested the landscape, as Kiyoko stood at her room's window.

She was fixing her armor on, as she beheld the not-yet searing sunlight. The day would grow hot later, so she'd cherish this visual and image for now.

"Oh. You're up."

Hoshiko leaned against the side of the door into the room.

Kiyoko briefly panned her head sideward, before returning to staring outside.

"...Mmh." Hoshiko wanted to snip at her for that, but it was early for her, too. She'd intended to rudely awaken her daughter, but to find her here already preparing threw off her charisma.

Stepping inside, Hoshiko spoke. "Despite everything… your second rite has gone well. I must say… I found your performance _exceedingly poor."_

Kiyoko didn't reply, still surveying the land.

'_The woods… I need to ask around town. I need to ask what the strongest youkai around are. The ones that aren't the oni or tengu, at least. The biggest single actors.'_

"You bled. You shook, you _wept,_ you _feared."_ Hoshiko insisted. Her hands laid down on her daughter's shoulders from behind. "You were _afraid._ That youkai… it got what it _wanted."_

Kiyoko snorted. "As if."

Hoshiko jerked her head back, disproportionately surprised. "...How— how _crass."_

"Youkai inflict fear." Kiyoko reasoned. "It is our duty to take that fear, and _use it._ To send it right back. What happens, when you corner an animal, like a cat? It acts unpredictably, lashing out with far more force than it would use were it not out of options."

Hoshiko cast her gaze up. "We are not _animals._ We are _Hakurei."_

...Kiyoko turned, giving her a flat look. "We're people. People are animals. It's far simpler to accept the truth of what we are and adapt, than it is to deny it and wallow in our—... our own _piss,_ so to speak."

"And who are _you_ to be so _brash?"_ Hoshiko leered back. "If you want to get _nasty,_ you all but _pissed yourself_ the other evening."

"Pft— ha~h…?" Kiyoko didn't know about that. "You must have had your head turned the other way. It was an intense exchange. Have _you_ ever fought so hard?"

Hoshiko took pause.

_WHAM!_ That's when the side of Kiyoko's head met the bottom of the window before herself, shoved into the corner of its frame, held there so tight it felt like either her head or the wood would break at some point.

"I've killed more than _you have,_ this is certain." Hoshiko's voice was laced with that grated annoyance she very occasionally let slip in regular speaking. "Were you not my daughter— I could twist your neck from here. Send your head rolling down the castle's side. It'd be the fault of a youkai's unfortunate intrusion."

...Kiyoko spoke while bound. "Yet—... you won't."

Hoshiko furrowed her brows.

"Is family so important?" Kiyoko asked.

"How about those two boys?" Hoshiko refused to let her ask questions. "I could have them be your _personal tutors _for the next few weeks. Even if you dispatch them— I could find _more._ Even the unwilling will trouble you. You're so _beautiful,_ after all."

Kiyoko almost wanted that, if only so she could impale them in a decidedly non-fatal way.

"What—..." Kiyoko found it hard to speak, Hoshiko partially gripping her neck. "What do you _fear?"_

Hoshiko's nails dug into Kiyoko's forehead, drawing blood. "If you do not obey me— your mother— I will make your life a living hell."

Kiyoko began to grin, as Hoshiko dug into her forehead. "Go ahead. Kill me."

Hoshiko seethed. "You will be raped. Made a slave. And, a reminder: royalty _creates._ It is not _bred._ Commoners are bred."

"They can't kill me." Kiyoko dismissed the idea. "No matter how much you help them. Even if you seal my faith, cut my joints, or slit my veins. All it will do is make your fate worse."

_BAM!_ Hoshiko smashed Kiyoko's head into the window's corner again.

Kiyoko had to admit, it hurt pretty bad. She shook, recoiling from the pain, teeth bared, but she knew it'd be over soon enough.

_thud._ That's when she was released, allowed to flop to the floor aside the window, her armor pressing into the wood floor.

"Your lessons begin in an hour." Hoshiko decided. "Your absence will be met with severe, extensive remedial studies. After all, you will _lead the clan_ when your time comes. You must be completely ready."

Kiyoko sat up against the walling beneath the window, feeling at her bleeding forehead. "Ye— yeah…? Hey—... hey, mom."

Hoshiko paused in the door, frowning back at her.

Kiyoko wiped away some of the blood, and smiled back. "Go fuck yourself."

Standing up, Kiyoko cracked her neck, and looked at the window.

'_I'm basically all dressed. So…'_

_Fwish._ Summoning her katana into her hands, fitting the sheath onto the latches at her waist, she leapt into the window.

"Kiyoko—" Hoshiko marched for her—

Kiyoko leapt from the window.

Before she could fall too far, she made a barrier platform beneath herself, and began to ride it down like an elevator.

Hoshiko stared out, as Kiyoko sat on it, riding it down and into town.

Blinking owlishly, she wasn't sure _what_ emotion she was experiencing, but it was surely tangential to annoyance. Kiyoko was becoming the biggest loose end in her life. She supposed it was natural, that it'd have to be _her daughter,_ of all things.

"If you want to play this game…" Hoshiko turned away, muttering under her breath.

If Kiyoko wanted to play this game, Hoshiko would reciprocate. She'd do her best to show her daughter just how low social rock-bottom could really be.

As for Kiyoko, she had some living to do.


	7. Breaking Through the Front

Later that same day, Kiyoko went down to the town.

Akinari, the brown-haired priest, ran along the edge of the Hakurei village, on the western side.

His chest was heaving, and he cursed the unease brought about by his kimono in the summer morning. Its excess cloth didn't help him run faster, and it just felt awkward to _really move_ in.

Normally, he could put up with it. But when he was running for his life, it felt almost like one distraction too many- and potentially too fatal.

"Hah- nnh- aah-" He sprinted from a beastman who was tailing him. The great beastman's huge chest was speckled with flaring Hakurei talismans.

This beastman was tall. His humanoid face was hard, and beset with a beard which blended in with his flowing hair.

Rotating around, Akinari flung his arms-

_Fwap! Fwap!_ Of six talismans that roared for the beastman, two landed on his right pec. They flared to life, white electricity roaring across his muscles and fur.

"Rrgh-" Reeling down, the furry man latched his huge hands onto a bench perched on the dirt path along this ridge of the village. _"Hra~h!"_ He tossed it, sending it spinning through the air.

Akinari ducked under it, heart jumping.

_CLANK!_ _"Agh!" _A samurai behind him was clotheslined by the bench, making it stop and drop to the ground-

"Aah- nngh!" Akinari dropped into a roll along the floor, to get away.

_Shunk!_ As the beastman lumbered forward, a samurai bolted up to it with breakneck speed, planting his katana into its gut-

_BAM!_ _BA- BAM!_ Two yin-yang orbs of torso-width came from above with meteor-like velocity, smashing against the beastman's head, causing it to tilt.

_THINK- THUNK!_ Two arrows from accompanying archers met the beastman from two different angles-

"_Nngh- ou-"_ Reaching down, it latched for the samurai who stabbed it, and when that failed, it flailed an arm out at him.

_WHAM! "Ho~h!"_ The samurai went soaring, but rotated around in the air as he went.

Pulling the arrows from his body, the two meter tall beastman's wounds began to undo themselves, his flesh burning with a blue, spiritual light.

Coming from an off-road, Kiyoko strolled along the edge of this encounter, her focus intent on the beastman himself.

'_One of the common youkai… I believe.'_ Usually, she'd keep quite clear of encounters like these. But, firsthand experience would be necessary, she figured.

Standing two-meters tall, he stood far above his other beastmen brothers. Behind him, scantily-clad corpses of other hairy men laid covered in talismans in the clearing.

This was a small-time raid on the village enacted by a local roving gang of beastmen who didn't know better, it seemed. The village had done _something_ to piss them off, and they saw retribution in the form of claiming captives and lives as fit payment.

Except, they've essentially failed to get their foot in the door. This road they've disturbed was not one used by the common villager; it was the last road on the village's edge. It was infrastructure for Hakurei warriors to move around, and a line of the battlements. There were no civilian women or children to be found here.

'_Considering we've weakened his brothers so much… the only point of contention is this alpha beast.'_

It would take an extermination ceremony to officially banish and undo the existence of these beasts for good. If the alpha himself repelled all of the Hakurei- somehow- he could recall his brothers into battle again, and continue the onslaught.

A few talismans would drain the strength and undo the will and healing of a simple lesser beast. But, for a man like the alpha, it would take a lot more than that to take him down.

"_Nngh…"_ With strength comparable to a lesser oni, the greater beastman flared out his arms, looming before Akinari as a dreadnaught of terrible, muscular power. _"Tiny-... wo~rm!"_ He beheld Akinari's form with palpable, growling anger.

Akinari leapt back, past the bench on the floor and the fallen samurai-

_KACRACK- KABOOM!_ The beastman stomped the bench into chips, as he steadily progressed for Akinari.

"Aah-" The nearby villager samurai- indicated by his blue-black armor, different from Hakurei regalia- began to crawl away-

_BAM! CRACK!_ The beastman stomped down on him, and a flourish of amber boomed out from the samurai's body. _"Ahu- u-..."_

Kiyoko plainly stepped up, amidst the scrambling warriors. It was a sloppy border skirmish, one which only saw this level of escalation because many of the more adept samurai were off doing other things.

By standard military thinking, this was an effective flank. Except, the beastmen were only a small gang taking on a huge settlement. They vastly underestimated the Hakurei, all because they were human. A running trend, to be sure.

Akinari paused as he dialed himself back. He saw Kiyoko. "Aa-... he- hey! Miss!"

Ignoring him, Kiyoko proceeded towards the beastman.

"_Hh-"_ As he pressed his heel down onto the human samurai, the beastman twisted his maw into a huge grin. _"Hell welcomes you- inferior, human man!"_ He raised his leg up to stomp it down again-

_TI~NG!_ A gold-white, Hakurei barrier was erupted beneath his metal boot. _"Aa-"_ The beastman almost fell back, before stomping the floor repeatedly, with such force that he counteracted the process of stumbling, tilling the soil in the process.

The bow-wielding samurai along the village's adjacent dirt path took pause.

"Nn- nnh…" Embedded in a nearby roof, the single novice Hakurei samurai here looked down…

The beastman leered ahead. His pupil-devoid white eyes saw Kiyoko standing there. Her height barely compared to his.

'_So… this is what my father would refer to as 'common fodder'.'_

Kiyoko had witnessed combat similar to this on her patrols with him. The land's forests were rife with youkai of all kinds. The only way to tell who would be where was with the right intelligence gathering teams, and the flow of the Hakurei's own warriors; something that seemed lucid and not entirely ordained on some days.

'_My father trusts the samurai with a certain level of autonomy. Individual captains lead their lesser men into the fray, and to perform certain objectives in the defense of the village.'_

Until now, Kiyoko had never seriously fought anyone other than Milla and a handful of common youkai. She surely hadn't killed anyone…

Yet, she remembered the way Milla's _Ikiryou_ disintegrated under the holy pillar. How her bones clattered across the clearing when her ribcage exploded.

'_Such violence… such incredible violence…'_

"_You…"_ The beastman smiled down at Kiyoko. _"You're fuckin' adorable."_

Kiyoko frowned up at him.

Pausing, the beastman looked down at the human samurai he was about to finish off. He'd already made it away, saved from the first stomp by his blue-black armor.

"_Nnn…"_ Frowning again, the beastman leered down at Kiyoko. _"Human-... human crap. If you give me that bitch," _he pointed at Kiyoko. _"We will leave you alone, for now."_

"I'm no offering." Kiyoko returned simply.

"_Hah!"_ The beastman piped back loudly. _"You are, now! I'll fuck you harder than any human. Give into me. You'll save more tiny lives that way."_

Kiyoko tilted her head back. Then, she smiled.

"I'm the one who's gonna be fuckin' _you."_ Kiyoko pointed her katana touched by the Hakurei god at the beastman. "You'll remember the filling sensation of my blade, hilted deep in your ass. Such that you will never walk again."

The beastman's mouth went ajar. Amber magic flowed from it, and his face contorted in horrible rage.

Akinari's jaw dropped.

"_I SAID- GIVE INTO MEEEE!"_ The beastman roared loud enough to shake the ground. His arms flared out, the orange magic enveloping his form, spreading from his mouth-

Kiyoko was before him in an instant, her left arm sliding up to him as if she simply threw a slap.

Her katana met his gut, thrown by the flick of her left arm's wrist, thrust into him like a missile.

_KRAK!_ The impact was like a rock being thrown full-force into a chalkboard.

_KAK- KASPLAT- SPLACK- PLACK- PLATPLAT._ His ribcage was blown from his body. A geyser of blood poured across the clearing, oozing into dirt and grass. Crimson mud was cast in this instant, mixed with wispy blue hues of his healing aspect.

"_Huu-"_ The beastman staggered back-

"_Die!"_ Kiyoko fell from above, her katana cleaved down with both arms.

_KRAK- RII~P!_ Flayed flesh, rib bones, and organs were cleaved through, becoming paste in the air in the wake of Kiyoko's magic sword.

"_AGHU"_ Tossing his body around, torso careening, the man swung his arms around to try and fend off any aggressive plays on him. _"Urgh- nnkh-"_

'_His life ended, when he attacked.'_

"To take me out," Kiyoko reiterated. "You must fight like a man."

_SHU- SHUNK!_ Now behind him, Kiyoko swung her katana wide, and cut along his calves. The muscles there unleashed spritzes of red in response to her swift incision.

_BAM!_ He fell onto the grassy plain on his knees, blood pouring out into a pond all around him, sliding away along the morning grass.

"_Kauu~gh!"_ He vomited deep crimson, the magic along his body becoming unstable.

"Not beast. No primal rage, no half-assed, fearful advances. No illogical contest."

He shook, writhing as his ribs shuddered, the bone reforming with vibrant, almost molten-blue energy along them.

Eyes blurry, beginning to water, he looked up-

"Taste the _blood-"_ Kiyoko was there. "-and your _fate."_

_SHUNK._ She shoved her katana straight down his throat. His maw, his canine teeth- they were smashed out of the way, the steel parting them.

She imagined driving this blade through Hakurei council, and her mother.

"Swallow your pride, with your _hate."_

Kiyoko leapt back, and drew her left leg up.

"_Hakurei god!"_ Kiyoko called to the gods.

'_You will not forget this maiden's power…'_

_FWARRR!_ Holy white bloomed along Kiyoko's left leg.

'_You are not worthy as my opponent.'_

_BAM!_ Kiyoko kicked her katana's hilt with her heel.

It shot like a streak of lightning, straight through the beastman's body, down his throat, through his empty chest, and out his ass.

Kiyoko watched the way his eyes dimmed, as his arms and knees began to give out and become limp. "Hk- _khk- kak-"_ He gargled on blood, which began to drip from his sundered throat.

Kiyoko beamed at his new, encumbered expression. His fierce features were now aged; a formidable appearance now pitiful. He was steps away from sleep; and he looked lax enough to fit the part.

'_Knees in the blood- with your crying plea… swathe in your sorrow, bathe in your fear.'_

Akinari's jaw dropped further. Sometimes, he felt like he was born in the wrong neighborhood.

Kiyoko felt a moment of mental clarity, as the beast's chin met the dirt.

"_Yh-"_ His vocal cords were the only thing healing. _"Yhou-..."_ All the incisions directly made by her holy blade- they were sapping his healing aspect.

"_I will-"_ He seethed through his maw. _"I will make- you mine-"_

"_Hrah!"_ Kiyoko threw a lame punch at his face.

The beastman flinched, his eyes snapping shut. _"Rrgh- nnh-..."_ He realized he wasn't struck, eyes blinking back open.

A Hakurei talisman was placed calmly on his forehead. It glowed grey-white, its brightness above those used by all the other Hakurei in this encounter.

_Thump._ He splayed out on his stomach. The great beast bled out.

Kiyoko had killed a youkai. In this particular case, there wasn't much immediate moral grayness to it. It was pretty obviously antagonistic.

'_The righteous suffer. In this moment, failure prospers.'_

Kiyoko supposed it was cheesy. But, she prized other's failures in ignorance and arrogance to be her spoils; the rewards for her diligence.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

7

Breaking Through the Front

"It's not _safe!"_

Kiyoko took brief pause, when a shrine maiden called out for her.

It was later that day. With the sun high in the sky, Kiyoko strolled towards a derelict shrine on the north-east. Talismans hung on chains set up around the property. This was Aoyama subsidiary territory; not that it mattered to Kiyoko. It was something she acknowledged in the back of her head.

"I-" Nahoko, a black-haired Aoyama-clan maiden who Kiyoko recalled, planted a hand onto Kiyoko's shoulder. "You're going to _die._ Who- who are you? Are you allowed to wear that?"

Kiyoko kept walking, and Nahoko was forced to let go and fall back, as Kiyoko strolled past the wards, holy chains and airborne talisman seals.

In here, even through the dereliction was restricted to this one property, it looked as if it had been abandoned for decades. Cobwebs, dust, rotted wood and chipped paint emitted a clumsy aura of sorts.

_Crack._ The moment Kiyoko got onto the porch's front steps, the first board broke.

She simply teleported onto the porch itself, and proceeded for the partially open sliding door.

_Shoof._ Sliding it open, she stepped inside. To the left, a similar door was crushed open, embedded in the wall past its wood rail. There was a shut door to the right, and in the back as well.

'_This old shrine is haunted.'_ That's all Kiyoko knew. _'It's been haunted since I've been a child. Some of the Aoyama take turns overseeing this cursed property. Powerful wards are in place to keep the nightmare at bay.'_

She was curious. If this being was so powerful, perhaps she would learn a thing or two about the scale of power.

In the muted silence around the shrine trapped in time, the splashing of water was heard.

Kiyoko turned left, dodging sections of floor which looked flakey or rotted. _'Truly gets me thinking about architecture. About how much work must go into the castle…'_ Of the things Kiyoko learned, carpentry wasn't one of them.

Then, in the kitchen area of the home, Kiyoko saw the source of the Aoyama's torment in this region.

There was a woman in here, with straight black hair. To her right, there were innumerable wood buckets; thirty or more stacked up on the kitchen counter, up to the ceiling atop each other.

She poured water onto an already clean, fancy porcelain plate, washing it amidst a large basin in the counter top.

Sensing Kiyoko there, the woman paused and turned.

Despite her long black hair, it became clear the pale woman was western. "Oh." She gave Kiyoko a huge smile. "Hello. How are you?"

Kiyoko's stare was blank. "...Fine."

"Master didn't inform me we'd have a _guest _today." The woman folded her left leg back, striking an attractive pose before the sink basin. "Sit at the table. He'll be ready for you shortly."

There was no table to sit at. That's what Kiyoko thought, until she confirmed a flat plate of wood on the floor probably used to _be_ the table.

"...Who is your master?" Kiyoko was fairly certain she was the only being here.

The pale woman met Kiyoko's stare, still smiling fiercely.

"...My." Holding the plate to her chest, the western woman beamed. "It's been such a long time. I had _almost_ forgotten."

She lazily used her right arm to sling the plate back, as if about to lazily toss a frisbee-

_KRAK- KRACK!_ Kiyoko blinked. A barrier she flashed before her face actualized, the plate exploding against the gold-white surface.

"I'm sorry." The woman stuck her tongue out. "Force of habit. I promise."

Kiyoko frowned. She was close to flinching; the impact loud and abrupt. But, she wasn't about to be outdone in intimidation.

The woman sensed the motion of Kiyoko's arms, and leaned to her left-

_CRACK!_ Kiyoko's katana plunged ahead with an arm's flick, into the edge of the window before the kitchen counter's basin. The wood cracked and splintered, its force immense.

"Oh-" The women beamed, doing a twirl on the air off the thrusted blade's air. "You're one of _those-"_

Kiyoko was before her, when the woman finished her twirl. Kiyoko hadn't slid, stepped or leapt into place; she had teleported, such that the movement couldn't be traced.

Kiyoko threw a plain punch for the woman's face, who jerked her head back, flinching away.

'_Hah.'_ Kiyoko lumbered back, away from her. _'Gotcha.'_

"You…" The woman looked somewhere between annoyed and confused. "...How cruel. Why did you not continue? I know not how you got so near- but with such reflexes, you could have begun the sealing process."

'_So, she knows. About our talismans, and such.'_ She wasn't a beastman, that much was certain.

"I made you flinch." Kiyoko noted. "You are a spirit. The punch would not have connected if I'd chosen to land it. Yet, you flinched."

...At first, the woman wasn't sure what the intent there was. Then, she realized it, after some thought.

"Hmm. So I did." The woman nodded. "You _Hakurei_ are all the same."

"I don't care what the Aoyama have done to you." Kiyoko held her hand into the air, for her blade to return.

_Fwish._ It actualized in her left hand again. "You wouldn't be the first. That doesn't give you the right to kill and torment indiscriminately."

Curious children have been the victims of her anger and wrath. That, as well as unrelated looters, and samurai from around the village who came to survey the residence. This property was here well before the military established a consistent offense against the youkai, and eventually became forgotten. The Aoyama could sort out their own dirt, after all.

Although, Kiyoko didn't know any of that. She just came to prove herself.

"You Hakurei…" The woman felt at her blue-green, ragged kimono. Its floral patterns were worn off well ago, and some of the rips implied something was strange with her limbs. _"I'll send every last one of you straight down to the bottom of hell."_

This was an _onryou._ A vengeful, location-bound spirit who survived on wrath. Their anger was _not_ limited to the source, either.

_Crack._ The woman's jaw seemingly snapped loose. _"AAAAAAA"_

Kiyoko steeled her blade, bringing it up neutrally-

_BAM! BAM!_ Hands shot from the floorboards, grasping Kiyoko by the ankles.

The onryou woman's hands were past Kiyoko's katana, gripping the sides of her head.

Her heart leaping, Kiyoko felt the onryou push her straight into the common room, out of the kitchen. The woman-like onryou seemed to glide across the floor as she did so, magic giving her the leverage she needed.

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko let one of her armored heels meet the wall behind herself, now on the far end of the common room.

_Crack!_ The onryou's whole body snapped backwards, spine breaking without reason. Then, it plunged a palm forward, to crush it straight into Kiyoko's chest.

_SHINK!_ Kiyoko curved her blade down, into the woman's forearm. It cleaved through the ethereal limb like butter, turning it to mist. The blade lit up as it passed through the onryou's dark material.

Now, Kiyoko could see it. A trickle of blood down the pale girl's neck, an incision in her throat.

'_She was executed.'_ Kiyoko recognized the cut. It was the one she was taught for her first rite's ceremony.

_Crack- crack!_ The onryou's other arm snapped into a huge limb, the fingers growing meters long, to curl around Kiyoko and crush her. _"I'll slit your throat. You'll bleed out- right here-"_

Kiyoko was across the room, having teleported.

'_The Hakurei god aids me. It allows me to float from reality, effortlessly evading force and power. A cutting advantage, if I remain wise enough to use it.'_

_SHINK! _Over here, she cut down the animated corpses that came from the kitchen with a single inward stroke.

They were of an Aoyama-Hakurei priest, and some other bald guy Kiyoko couldn't identify. Unlike the onryou itself, these were simply animated by its magic, and not spirits of their own right.

"Without _direction,_ all the hardship you've faced is meaningless."

Slowly lowering her blade, Kiyoko shook her head, as she turned around to face the spirit. "It's foolishness."

"_Direction…!?"_ The wide-eyed girl held up her hands- both of which were normal, not maimed, and fully there. "What direction!? I was _murdered!_ My mom- mom doesn't know-..." Shaking, the girl held her head. "Mom…"

Baring her teeth, the onryou woman dropped onto her knees. "My _master-_ my_ fucking-_..." She breathed in. "No. He- he is _not _my master. That man- he made me nothing. He took my home. He took my _life._ If everything about a person, _about me,_ is so worthless-...

"I'll eat _every being who came before and after him."_

_BAM- BAM- BAM!_ Kiyoko was met with a force that sent her flying through two walls, and through the kitchen counter.

Black filled her vision, amidst the immense, booming confusion and pain.

"_OPEN YOUR EYES."_

Kiyoko bared her own teeth, feeling something inky slip in as she did so.

'_I see.'_ It hurt, but Kiyoko quickly got the idea. _'She wants me to feel her pain.'_

Her arms bound, Kiyoko felt the black aura fill her throat, touching the back of it. "Hkk- _kkh-"_ Kiyoko was choking on the dirt outside the house, slowly being overcome by a black shade.

"Auah-" She forced her body to talk, despite it. Even though it filled her throat, she could bite and chew, and talk through it; the aura wasn't solid. _"Shk- nnn-"_

'_Perhaps not. Then…'_

Light bloomed from Kiyoko's chest.

_FWAA~M!_ A thin, single beam of piercing light shot into the sky, from her heart and through her armor.

Kiyoko opened her eyes, but didn't see black. "Haa-" Taking a breath, she sat up-

The onryou was huge. Two meters huge, mouth snapped into a wicked, ninety-degree angle smile it recoiled amidst the day's light and from the light of Kiyoko's heart and soul.

"_You will not be the first either."_ Blood rocketed from the slit in its throat. _"Swallow it- BITCH- SWALLOW HERESY"_

_BOOM!_ Kiyoko let herself fall to the side, as both of its arms came down like falling tree trunks on her position, expanding and engorging to have great mass.

Then, Kiyoko fell from the roof behind the onryou, rolling to land on her legs. "Nnh!"

'_It's fast, and it's strong. It's also unpredictable. Yet…'_

Kiyoko decided to experiment. _'If I look at its eyes-... hmh.'_ She needed to know something. But, she wouldn't chance her own safety. She wasn't sure how reliable or safe it would be, to be pinned by such a powerful spirit again.

But, Kiyoko didn't need to do anything. Nahoko, the black-haired maiden who was tasked to sentry the derelict shrine, came around its side. _"Hey!_ What-"

The onryou faced her.

Nahoko's heart stopped, and her mouth hung open.

When they made eye contact was when it happened.

"_Mmgh-"_ Nahoko's mouth was forced open, black flooding into her body. _"Aa- huck- shk-"_

"_HAHAHAHA"_ It laughed so hard, Kiyoko's ears hurt from twenty meters away. _"BEHOLD the heresy- the maiden defiled, temptress and impure-"_

"_For the crime of beauty-"_

"_SUCK- CHOKE- FUCKING-"_

_SHING!_ A huge, metal shard formed in the air next to it. _"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE"_

'_Eye contact with the being is deadly. It wrests control of your senses, and tests your resolve. If it gained control of your vision… I dread to think of it.'_

_CLANG!_ Kiyoko stopped the oncoming metal disc shard with her katana, holding her own blade by the hilt and tip.

The huge iron shard rebounded, floaty as it rolled away through the air, and into the Hakurei wards on the edge of the terrain- which caught it and returned it to the earth by removing the spirit's control over it.

'_Ah. That's how I save this girl.'_

"_It's too late."_ Beaming down at Kiyoko, the spirit spoke ominously. _"She let it all go. She's master's too, now. She is a HERETIC, like ME."_ Slowly, her black-grey energy began to soak into Nahoko's body, threatening to overtake her skin and head, and all of her torso.

Kiyoko grabbed Nahoko by the collar, through the inky black. "Get the _hell, out of here!"_

_WOOSH._ She spun around once, pushing all her muscles. _"Come- on-"_

_WOOSH!_ With the second spin, she let go. Nahoko flew halfway to the wards- but the onryou began to pull it back.

"_It's useless."_ The being proclaimed. _"You're useless. You're HERETICAL. You should join- the open windpipe choir-"_

"_Hakurei go~d!"_ Kiyoko slung her right leg up, and kicked it hard enough to carry her to Nahoko's form.

_THOOM- SPLACK!_ She kicked Nahoko hard enough for blood- and black- to rocked from her stomach. _"Uuhf!"_

_Thud!_ Nahoko was thrown far outside the dome of wards around the property.

"_AAAA- AAUUOH!"_ The onryou was immediately rejected, not allowed to pass through. It rolled through the air as a ball of black. Some of it had been severed from itself, left to dissipate and deteriorate outside the ward field. _"UUUOOU…"_

"I see your anger, and its might." Kiyoko spoke to it, looking to the wayside of it as it jiggled in the air overhead. "It compares to something."

The onryou ball in the air stopped. The woman's face beamed down. "Oh? And, _what would that be?"_

"Nothing." Kiyoko had a shit-eating grin. "That is, if something could be nothing."

_KABOOM!_ The black bounded for the floor like a meteor, splatting out into a field that encapsulated the yard.

Kiyoko was along the back of the house, waving at it. "Haha!" She gave a fake laugh, to incite it further.

'_This shrine has the provision of a kitchen. If it has a vanity…'_

Coming up to the back door, Kiyoko slung it open.

_BAM!_ The sliding door rebounded into the doorway when Kiyoko ripped it open, quickly slipping inside in spite of it.

"_You've made a big mistake."_ The onryou spoke through the walls. _"You can't hide in here. Did you think this was a game?"_

"_If I was to be honest… I love killing teenage girls the best."_

"_They're a lot like me. The way their hands twist when they choke- how the eyes roll up, and I see all that they've ever seen- then we both go blind. The punishment for our heresy to the Hakurei- in our deep indulgence. Our involuntary indulgence."_

"_The things I see, the things you could see- so, so many things. So much they've lost- their mothers, their mothers, their mothers-"_

Kiyoko slammed the last door open. It was a crappy little bathroom, fit with a vanity and some buckets.

Kiyoko saw it to her right. A mirror. It had seen better days, and something she didn't understand was eating at its reflective property on all edges, making only the midst of the mirror usable.

"_It's beautiful, really. You see so much about a beautiful person, in their worst moments. You get a scale for how nice their life really was. What I find funny… is even those who suffer, never accept death. They don't accept the choking. They don't take it like a good girl. I didn't, either. Death taught me; the HAKUREI showed me the price of love, of lust, of HERESY-..."_

'_This won't be so easy.'_ Kiyoko closed her eyes, and stared at the mirror.

"_GOT YOU."_ The mirror stared back at Kiyoko. Yet, Kiyoko's eyes were closed.

Kiyoko smiled. "You live for suffer. You live for revenge."

Like this, Kiyoko could see the being's dark energies all around her. They flared up when it was angry, telegraphing its intent.

"Yet," Kiyoko inhaled the dingy air of the bathroom, "this life of yours has come to an end."

_WOOSH- WOOSHWOOSHWOOSH._ Kiyoko leaned and teleported out of the way of beams of black, jutting through the walls, the ceiling and floor, and all around.

_Twing- shink- snap- twing!_ With her katana, eyes closed, Kiyoko stroked her blade through the black strands, undoing them a couple at a time.

"What's wrong?" Kiyoko stopped at the corner of the room, where it wasn't trying to impale her. The being was figuring she'd stay in the center. "Are you _scared?"_

_WHAM- BAMBOOMBAM!_ A column of black filled where Kiyoko used to stand. This ate so much of the spirit's being- the black around the room lightened, just some.

Kiyoko tore the mirror from the wall, abandoning her katana, and channeled her faith into it.

"From death, see the war. On Hakurei ignorance, and youkai alike."

"See me rule the clan, Japan, the _world-"_

Kiyoko opened her eyes again.

"_See the mirror- and you'll see a fool."_

Eager, the spirit snapped its luminescent, blue eyes open white, revealing the pinpricks to Kiyoko.

That was what it desired. Yet, it was denied. Kiyoko held the mirror casually up before her own face.

The face the woman-turned-onryou saw was her own.

...Kiyoko let out a breath.

The dingy bathroom was just that. Provided, dereliction had perhaps been sped up a little. Big holes were now marking every wall of the room.

Looking down, Kiyoko turned around the mirror.

It didn't work as intended. Inside, she saw a somewhat melancholic portrait of the black-haired woman, in her faded kimono. She was trapped in time, framed perfectly, giving the outside world a yearning stare with her grey eyes.

'_...She must have had a hell of a spirit, to fight so eagerly after death.'_

Kiyoko swallowed, and held the mirror out with both arms.

'_Yet, the outcome was decided already. I too hate this world, for how it's ordained things. For us to cross one another this way. If it was not I, perhaps you would never have found release.'_

'_Rejoice. Your life is over.'_

Kiyoko dropped the mirror.

_CRACK._ It shattered violently, and the girl's image was dispelled forever.

...Kiyoko bowed, said a quick prayer, and moved for the shrine's common room.

In here, the corpse of the girl was now where it should have been. In the north-east corner of the common room, a girl lay slumped against the wall. Black, long-decayed blood ran down her neck and along her kimono, and the kimono itself laid open, revealing her ravaged body.

She was a heretical western servant executed for her disgrace to the Hakurei god. Said disgrace was allowing herself to be defiled by a Hakurei kannushi, of the Aoyama sort.

Looking around, Kiyoko saw the ceremonial candles in the room's corner.

'_Let me see her off more properly. God shall sort her out.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

It was sunset.

Kiyoko now roamed the lakeside once again. She roamed and roved across the main roads with a cone of vanilla ice cream in one hand, and a wooden mug of water in the other.

'_I'll break through the front of superstition around this village. If only to heighten my awareness at least, but ideally to hone my instincts.'_

There was more fodder to feast on than she'd believed. Just by roaming around, trading a few sentences of minutes of dialogue, she could learn of the worldly horrors the villagers feared. Even Hakurei were subject to problems which slighted their ability to act on these superstitions, or so it seemed.

'_My solution to that onryou was inelegant. I sought combat, and combat was what I got. I'm not displeased with the outcome, however. What I am displeased by was how long such a relic remained.'_

A whole shrine property, not worth the time of the greater Hakurei sages, but too dangerous for just anyone to resolve. Truly, it was an ever-present curse on the environment around it.

She bit into her ice cream, focused on the dirt path. "Om…"

'_We could be more efficient. Problems like these should not be allowed to so easily slip by. Even if I'm the one who has to see them done.'_

As Kiyoko roamed the sun-kissed dirt road, beholding the beauty of the lake owned by the Hakurei and its golden glow in the warm sun, she saw two civilians move to pass her on her right.

One was what seemed to be an old woman. She was hunched over, a huge rice hat obscuring the top of her head, and a cloth hiding the bottom of her face. A black-haired boy walked along her, holding her hand, and the spoke quietly to one another.

"She's pretty…" He pointed at Kiyoko idly. "Aah… she has an ice cream."

The older woman tilted its head in the direction of the woman. She had no way of actually seeing Kiyoko, it seemed, but she still passed judgment. "A lady samurai…? What've the Hakurei been up to?"

"She looks so strong…" The boy seemed young; likely about thirteen. "I, um…" He seemed to look over at his perhaps relative, as if seeking approval.

She gave a slow nod. As Kiyoko walked by them, he held up his hand. "Um… hey! Miss!"

Kiyoko took a quiet bite of her ice cream, and ignored him.

He was persistent about seeking her attention, however. "Miss! Aw, c'mon…"

Running out in front of her with surprising speed, he held his arms up. "He~y!"

Kiyoko gave him a jaded look, to scare him. "It's a serious message, to block one's path, _boy._ You better have a good reason."

He recoiled slightly. "Wh- um… aa-"

"Oh, be nice." The older woman to Kiyoko's side chided from behind her. "He's just a boy, you see. Do you Hakurei have no shame?"

'_...You speak as if you're not part of us.'_ They weren't western; or, at least, the boy wasn't. The old lady was at least in eastern _dress,_ Kiyoko could ascertain. It was all she could, with literally all of the woman's face covered some way or another.

"I- I just wanted to, um… aa- ask about your ice cream." The boy explained. "And-... I wanted to tell you, that you were really pretty!"

Kiyoko's look back at him was blank. "Is that all?" After today, she was in no mood for idle chitchat. Especially when villagers typically knew to stay out of a strange woman's way- particularly one in armor.

"I, um…" The boy got closer to her, smiling. "I was wondering-... could- could we hang out? If that's, um, not too much trouble? For- for you?"

...Kiyoko frowned.

"Today, I have ruined a being ten times both beast and man. I've banished the undead, to their dark and dismal fate. I do not plan to chuck a little boy into the shifting tides."

He swallowed, sporting a tense look that Kiyoko found obnoxious.

"You really couldn't even spare him a moment?" The old lady wondered. "You see… after his mother passed away, not even a day ago, he has been grief-stricken. It was only after seeing you, he cheered up."

Kiyoko took pause. _'...I don't know if there were any reported deaths, today. I left the castle in a hurry. Even then, overhearing such a detail would be purely by chance. Such a number is typically none of my business, but now…'_

In her aware and skeptical mood, Kiyoko would have folded her arms, if they weren't full. She bit into her ice cream again. "Mmh…"

"I believe you two have something special together." The old lady remarked. "Please, Hakurei. Consider giving this young man a little time and care. Who knows? It may even be in your interest."

'_I definitely don't like how she's wording it.'_

'_Before, I may have been naive enough to go with the motions. This would seem interesting enough.'_

'_But, now? ...Hmm. Though I will remain skeptical, I can't help but feel curious. A plan, then.'_

"Very well." Kiyoko agreed. "I will go with you. However, we will walk _very slowly,_ so I may finish my food before we get there."

"One of us may hold it, for you." The old woman proposed.

"I- I can!" The boy held up his arms-

Kiyoko held her ice cream and water higher. _"No._ It _will_ be finished before we reach our destination. Do not ask me again. It will be your undoing. Demise, even."

Yet, despite her borderline homicidal words, the boy and old woman did not react to her cruelty. "Okay, okay." The woman began to hobble slowly. "Follow me, Tsuneo. Actually… what is your name?" She asked Kiyoko.

Standing there in her Hakurei armor, armed with ice cream and water, Kiyoko stared at the sky. "...Rachel." It was meant as a joke.

"A very nice name." The old woman decided. "Isn't it nice?"

"So pretty…" The boy agreed. "Really, really pretty."

'_What.'_ Kiyoko didn't know about _that._ _'I can't tell if that's a sign of something wrong, or if they're both too dim to suspect otherwise.'_

But, they went. The elderly woman- Kiyoko presumed, at least- lead them further around the lakeside, away from the village proper.

They actually reached their destination relatively quickly. Kiyoko munched on the last of her vanilla cone, before guzzling down all the water she brought.

'_Right here, hmm? In this…'_

It was some manner of structure on the side of the lake. A sort of pier home, neighboring similar docks and lakeside houses arranged by the Aoyama, for their ships.

'_Not that the Aoyama makes use of all this wasted wood. It's the Ha family on the other side of the lake who does ten times the work, with resources fractionated by ten.'_

Kiyoko sat her wood mug aside atop a crate, left abandoned out here. _'Speaking of abandoned, this whole dock house looks it. It's right on the far edge of the lake we control, as well.'_

"Quite a troublesome home, for a family like yours." Kiyoko figured. "Have you... anyone who is stationed here? Or, considered so?"

Typically, fringe houses weren't actually armed with _people_, aside from a few exceptions per subsidiary clan decisions. But, any border of the village facing _any_ ground of contention with the youkai would be housing samurai and Hakurei faith warriors, and not civilians.

It made it easier for the warriors to reach the battlefield. If youkai attacked the borders, the first thing they'd meet would be warriors, and fortified home fronts. Not as easy as pillaging a bunch of farms leaning against one another.

"My son lives here, yes." The older woman took a moment to decide. "He isn't here right now. A Hakurei warrior, you see. Through and through."

'_Fair enough.'_ This was an area of relatively low contention anyway. _'You'd think I'd see watchmen or patrolmen more, however. Though, this- is- Aoyama territory. They haven't been known to be strategic.'_

"Come inside." The older woman insisted, moving through the front door herself.

_Crea~k._ In the golden sunset, it petered out a whine, as she waded into the dim household. Kiyoko tailed her, and the boy Tsuneo followed behind.

Inside, Kiyoko took a once-over of her surroundings.

'_...This place hardly looks lived. There are no lights, no candles, crates, and in fact-'_ There was an open access in the wall, to an area where ships would be mounted. This was a dock house that was operated when ships were present, and nothing more.

_Click._ The door nearly quietly shut behind Kiyoko, the boy closing it discreetly.

"How about some tea?" The woman proposed.

"How about I see your face?" Kiyoko proposed in turn.

She paused. "...Oh. Oh- oh, you- you wouldn't want to _see_ my face."

"Show it to me, or I'm leaving." Kiyoko demanded.

...Suddenly, the woman's head flicked to the side with more speed than she'd used every moment before now. "Tsuneo-kun."

"_On it!"_ Tsuneo piped up with way more energy than he had before-

"Aah-" Kiyoko felt him leap onto her armored back.

He'd immediately used enough force with his tackle to force her onto her knees.

His breath was on her neck- and she could feel his teeth briefly kiss her skin there.

'_Not again…'_

_Fwish!_ Then, in a near instant, the woman discarded her face cloth and rice hat, and threw an arm forward. A wood staff materialized in the air in the process, extending out for Kiyoko's face.

Kiyoko leaned her head and torso away from the slowly extended staff tip, eyes focused on the rippling air around it. _'That magic-'_

_click._ That's when Kiyoko made a barrier under herself, and made it rise. Despite the woman's attempt at prodding her, the staff came short of Kiyoko's head and hair on the second pass, meeting the tip of the barrier platform instead. "Darn it…"

Kiyoko's body was quickly flattened atop the barrier platform by the boy on her back. "Rrh- _arh-"_ He gnawed his teeth into the back of her neck.

"Ff-" Kiyoko bit her lips.

His hands attempted to grope her, but her armor didn't reveal anything he could touch, so he just caressed the metal instead.

Yet, as Kiyoko lay there on the shimmering barrier, her body refused to respond, yielding to the instinct to surrender as the boy had her throat in his maw.

"Nnn-" He hummed out a moan, lightly humping her butt. "Aa-"

_Bam._ Then, Kiyoko crushed the both of them against the ceiling, herself and Tsuneo meeting a wood beam. Except, Kiyoko being in armor, the exchange favored her. "Rrgh- _nngh-"_ Tsuneo tried to bite onto her harder-

The barrier platform was dispelled. Despite his intent locked jaw on her neck, Kiyoko kicked her legs forward, flipping them around and making sure Tsuneo- and her back- faced the floor.

_WHAM!_ Tsuneo was squished under her. _"Rrh- aeh- nngh!"_ His jaws released her throat.

"Come on, now." The woman walked up to Kiyoko, who began to sit up, to get off of him. _"Be still."_

_Clunk._ She tapped her staff against Kiyoko's chest, meeting the armor-

_ZAPZAZAPZAPZAP!_ _"Nngh- ebe- uuu-"_ Kiyoko was jostled in place by the electric surge.

"_Ee- aa- nnh- aaa-"_ The strange boy beneath her writhed too, the electric current also pumping through him.

'_This- element…'_ Kiyoko's mind was cloudy, as she slumped onto her side.

Slowly rolling onto her stomach, she flicked her gaze to look at the boy. His hair was white now, and he had animal ears. He looked like a _tengu pup,_ rather than a human.

"Mmm." The old woman's voice was heard humming. "What do you think of her, Tsuneo? She's strong indeed. Yer scent picked out a nice one."

"Nnn-" Tsuneo took the electricity better than Kiyoko, overall. He sat up beside her, beholding her as she rested on her arms, stunned. "Aah… ye- yeah. She's _so, so cute."_

With her hair slightly frizzed out, Kiyoko decided to stall for some breather time. "Hey-... wh-... what do you want- with me?"

The old woman chuckled. "Heheheh… y'see, Tsuneo-kun here didn't wanna go home empty-handed."

"Hey. That's- not entirely true!" Tsuneo protested. "...After- um, after I heard the miss magician who saved me got killed, fighting the Hakurei, I um… I- I wanted to contribute to the clan harder. So, I need a human to um… to- to be my girlfriend, so I can bring them back home."

"And that's where I came in." The old woman spoke, though her air of fragility was gone. Kiyoko could sense it- this was a youkai, not a woman. "Tsuneo-kun was down on his luck. But, our interests aligned. That answer your question?"

Kiyoko remembered it. Her mother and father, after the ceremonial rite, informing her just _who_ the target was supposed to be. It was brief, but she remembered it. A tengu pup...

'_I've done it. I've found it.'_

'_I'll drag this boy's body back home. If that fails, I'll drag back the body of the damn Kijo whose sided with him.'_

Tsuneo got on his knees, and pressed his left side against Kiyoko's right, his face near her right ear. "Let me-... can we breed? I wanna breed you."

Kiyoko began to feel her limbs again. She planned to deceive it-

"Tsuneo." The Kijo spoke up. "Lemme soften her up first. You can bet these Hakurei women'll two-face ya, if they think it helps get away."

"Um. Oh…" Tsuneo swallowed, and stood, backing away from Kiyoko. "Okay…"

'Kijo' was a branch term for women who have transformed into youkai, from the fringes of society. Beings of immense, simple pettiness towards civilization. Usually, they stuck far and away from most people, casting hexes and curses on settlements from afar; but naturally, the Hakurei village was an exception.

"Kijo…" Kiyoko began to stand uneasily.

"Oh?" The woman's face curled into a huge smile. "They call me a _kijo _now, do they?"

The woman let her rags drop too, and Kiyoko got her first good look at her.

She wasn't old at all. She had bright orange hair on a pale body, done up in three uneven ponytails on the sides and back of her hair.

On her face was a mask, resembling an uglier demoness or Kijo, with yellow-black, straw-like strands on either rim of the mask.

Her chest was contained by aged bindings, and a fundoshi obscured her groin. "Mmn? Can't get enough of my body, can ya?"

She twirled her staff overhead, and it seemed to emit a force which scrambled the light and air around it.

"Won't you be a dear," her head leaned in, as if leering at Kiyoko, "and spread yer pussy, for Tsuneo-kun?"

Not replying, Kiyoko flicked her left arm through the air- her katana slipping out and traveling to the Kijo like an arrow.

_BAM- SHUNK!_ It plunged through the kijo's chest, but the Kijo had her right arm on the blade before the hilt, stunting its force.

"_Yield!"_ The kijo thrust its staff forward, and an unholy light flashed from the green gem near its tip.

Just by catching a glimpse at the light, Kiyoko felt strange. _'Fucking-...'_

Kiyoko drew her left arm back-

_SHUNK!_ The katana retracted itself from the kijo's chest, coming back for Kiyoko's left hand. When Kiyoko caught it, she vanished.

_FWAM!_ Then, the moment Kiyoko was behind the kijo, a flame pillar erupted behind her, repelling her advance.

"I know how you Hakurei work." She spoke to Kiyoko, slowly turning around, her mask obscuring youthful features. "I know _exactly_ what ya want, too. Can't say I've ever seen a _maiden samurai,_ though, but I'm sure yer just as depraved as any other."

Kiyoko was in the air over her, having teleported up. With one arm on the ceiling's big beam, she leered down. "Savvy, are you?"

The kijo looked up-

_TING!_ When the katana came down like a missle for her mask, the kijo erected a blue-white barrier in the air before itself, sending the blade flying away when it impacted the magic.

Then, another flash of green and blue came from the being's staff, catching Kiyoko's vision. _'That light-'_

"Wouldn't it be so easy?" The kijo proposed. "Lemme tell ya, actually-... Tsuneo's a pretty nice boy. Pretty cute, too."

Kiyoko appeared on her feet before the kijo, to grapple onto her binding with one hand.

The kijo prodded Kiyoko with her staff, repelling her. "Nn-" It wasn't electrical, this time. The magic it inflicted on Kiyoko made her head tingle.

'_My head-...'_

"I-" Tsuneo was still nearby, sitting on some crates. He had apparently hidden somehow, since Kiyoko couldn't see him once he'd backed off before. "I'd um, take good care of you..."

Kiyoko haid an airy look on her face.

'_I'm…'_

"Well?" The kijo smiled smugly beneath her mask. "Isn't he cute?"

Kiyoko opened her mouth to insult them. "Ye- yes…"

'_Wait-'_

She dropped onto her knees, as Tsuneo stepped up to her.

She hugged her arms around him, and pressed her face against his.

'_What- am I doing!?'_

Immediately, he gripped her back hard, and pressed a hand against the back of her head. The tingling in Kiyoko's head intensified, and her whole body grew hot and strange.

"Mwah…" Releasing his lips from the kiss she gave him, Kiyoko crossed her eyes to look along Tsuneo's face. "I-..."

'_I won't-'_ She could hardly keep her eyes open. _'I won't- lose here…'_

"Fuck me." Kiyoko's body shook, and she smiled upon hearing her own request. "Ta- take off my armor- and-"

He pushed her back, onto her butt. "Nnh…"

Tsuneo sat on her waist, and her knees met each other, as she yieldingly looked up at him. He tried to grope her chest again, but was once more perplexed by the chest armor. "...Um. Why're you wearing like, this plate stuff?"

Kiyoko's eyes were about to drift shut, her vision blurry.

Behind Tsuneo, the kijo spoke, in a way only herself and Kiyoko could hear. _"Isn't it easier? When you're true to your desires?"_

"Um…" Kiyoko smiled up at Tsuneo. "To- to protect myself. Um-" Her senses were thankfully too scrambled to remove the armor _herself,_ so she seemed to behold it with equal perplexity.

'_This fucking youkai-'_ Meanwhile, frustration built in her head. _'This isn't… what I want.'_

"_Here."_ The kijo held her staff up.

_Click._ Seared open, the chestplate of Kiyoko's armor parted.

"Oh!" Tsuneo beamed. "Thanks… um."

Folding the metal open, Tsuneo instantly pressed his hands deep into Kiyoko's bound breasts.

"What's your name?" As he groped her innocently, he asked her name.

Kiyoko's head spun, and she stared up at the ceiling in euphoria. "...Ca- call me… _Kinky."_ Her heart fluttered, and she grinned.

'_This…'_ She felt her mind churn from the dizzying sensation of being groped, here on the dirty dock house floor.

"_You can sleep now."_ The kijo nodded in satisfaction. _"You're not needed here anymore."_

"Yes…" Kiyoko's body gave in. "Tsuneo-... ku- kun…"

But, her mind resisted. _'This-... fu- fuck…'_

'_Hakurei god-... Hakurei…!'_

'_This rabble- born only of spite for our people, of me, of those of different ways of living…'_

Tsuneo got off Kiyoko, and began to roll her over. Her body complied easily.

Her hugged into her back again, groping her from behind, humping himself against her butt. Weak, wanting, Kiyoko's arms gripped a crate before herself to support her body, as the boy had his way.

There was a place in her mind that wanted to feel this worldly pleasure. An instinct urging her to give up and find out what it would feel like, and just how empty-minded she would be by the end of it.

There was also something else. Anger, her fear, her hate. Her spite for the humans who have tried something similar to her; as well as Milla's thoughtlessness and lack of sacredness in mating. The memory of what her mother told her, despite being wrong about so many other things.

"By-" Kiyoko spoke, as Tsuneo played with her, smelling the back of her neck where he bit her earlier. "By mm- my hands-..."

The kijo began paying attention again. She was planning to head to a different part of the house, to let the two do their mating in privacy.

"This land- shall be-..." Kiyoko exhaled. "Protected."

Despite the flowing urges along her body, Kiyoko fought the tingling in her head with a headache; born of frustration, of holy energy, of the sheer force of her teeth grinding.

With Tsuneo on her back, Kiyoko stood uneasily.

The kijo walked up next to her. "Nah." It held its staff before her face, a faint light rippling along its gem repeatedly.

Kiyoko saw nothing, for a few moments.

'_Hakurei god…'_

She clenched her fists so tight, her palms began to bleed. She bit her lips so hard the skin began to tear, blood running down her lips.

Tsuneo noticed the way her muscles shook. "Ki- Kinky-... are you okay?"

"Oh, she's fine." The kijo declared. "Keep feelin' her up. She'll-"

Numb, blind, Kiyoko slung her left arm behind her back, and had Tsuneo by the collar. She could only tell by the way her hands and nails stopped; they'd gripped the hem of his kimono for sure.

With a push against the crate, Kiyoko let herself fall backwards slightly. Then, she ripped that numb arm forward, overhead, with as much strength as she could muster.

_WHAM!_ Being slung overhead, Tsuneo's back was forced to hit the crate she was leaned up against earlier. _"Uugh!"_ Despite being a tengu pup, he was also only thirteen, making his overall mass slim.

_KRAK- ZAPZAPZAPZAP!_ Kiyoko was electrocuted by the kijo's staff again, her body tingling with pain and blurry pleasure.

Kiyoko threw both arms out, and growled.

"You- will not forget this _maiden's_ power…"

Between the uneasy, blurry lights and curses, Kiyoko looked to the sky.

She remembered killing the beastman earlier today. She remembered smashing the mirror. She remembered their volume, their unexplainable, unpredictable manners of being. Such strange dispositions could easily horrify the common person.

'_This- is what power is for. So that nothings like these cannot 'piss' on my dreams.'_

"_You are not worthy as my opponent."_

The yin-yang shield flared around Kiyoko.

The kijo recognized the holy magic. "Tsuneo! _Run!"_

He looked up from the crate, eyes wide. "Huh-"

_FWAA~SH!_ A holy pillar erupted under the kijo, enveloping her form, born from a yin-yang sigil on the floor.

Tsuneo bolted for the water; the boat-docking area open to the air. It was easier than tossing a door open, or finding a window.

"_Hu~p!"_ With one bound, he was gone, leaping way out into the lake's midst.

"Nngh-" Blue-white barriers flickered around the kijo, as she staggered back to a wall.

_SHUNK! _Kiyoko's katana came through the dwindling strands of white from the holy energy pillar, meeting her in the chest.

_SPLACK- BOOM! _The kijo's pale skin became an irritated red, as the whole front of her chest burst open. The pristine skin was ruined, rib bones exploding out, the cage of bone parted in two by the unreal force.

Appearing next to it, having left her yin-yang shield, Kiyoko reached forward to grab onto the kijo-

_ZAP- ZAPZAPZAP!_ Kiyoko's form burned with electricity. The kijo saw her come up, and prodded her in the stomach.

As she shuddered, eyes going screwy from the magic, Kiyoko planted her left hand against the back of the kijo's head.

_BOOM!_ Kiyoko planted the kijo face-first into the floor. _"Uu- nnhuh…"_

"_I'll break your mask."_ Kiyoko remarked. _"I'll break your hate."_

_FWASH!_ Ice met some of Kiyoko's body, but she fought the way her skin crystalized, raising her left leg into the air.

_BOOM!_ But, when she stomped it down, the kijo was gone. The floor became a spiderweb of cracks, white blooming through the rotten wood.

The mask was in the air, its features contorted into a glare at Kiyoko. _"You're a hundred years too early-"_

_Fwifwifwish! _It weaved through a field of talismans Kiyoko slung towards it.

Since it was distracted, Kiyoko had a moment. _"Heal."_ She muttered her magic.

As her mind cleared, force and balance returning, Kiyoko steeled herself.

She thrust her arm straight for the mask. She knew grappling with the youkai head-on was going to hurt.

The feeling was unreal. Electricity sparked through her body, her skin began to char, ice crept up the limb that grasped the mask. She was holding it so she could see into the back of the mask.

"_Perfect."_ The kijo sounded happy. _"A sexy body like yours'll suit me just fine."_

Kiyoko's healing aspect fought the elemental hell. The mask lunged for Kiyoko's face, the black back meant for her features.

With both arms, Kiyoko gripped it. Air and dust was being pulled into the mask's back, as if it were a lightless void. It was only a quarter meter from her face- and it was like Kiyoko could see a starry void inside.

Kiyoko's limbs emitted white light where the fire and ice cracked and parted it, holy energy joining her own blood. Her eyes were a piercing white, the Hakurei god's energy flooding through her body in her moment of need.

Kiyoko could imagine it. The mask binding to her features, being repressed into her mind as the licentious youkai took over and made a whore out of her, her royal blood being rendered useless and obscured.

'_This world…'_

The bright white piercing out of Kiyoko's eyes grew in intensity.

'_Sometimes, this undeniable cruelty, this immense force from stupid- shit- like this…'_

She imagined anyone less than herself being easily overtaken here; and no one would be able to tell the tale. No one would hear from that human girl ever again.

'_It makes me want to cry.'_

Kiyoko saw red pinpricks observing her from the mask's void.

Her own eyes watered in excitement.

"_I refuse to put on the mask of shame."_ Kiyoko announced. _"I reject pleasure for pain-... as my chosen torture makes me stronger."_

The water in her eyes combined with the white glow of the Hakurei god's power, creating a prism effect.

Kiyoko shot two white lasers from her eyes, connecting them with the mask's red pinpricks. She considered this a trick she learned from the woman in the mirror, earlier today.

_Crack._ Like she was pulling on clay or ceramic, Kiyoko pulled the mask apart with relative ease.

"_AAA-"_ The kijo gasped. _"Huawa- ouhua- aa- hh-..."_ A mess of unintelligible sounds poured out.

Black poured into the air. Kiyoko had torn the kijo apart with her bare hands.

...Looking behind herself, she saw the corpse of the orange-haired girl. Her ribs were still blown out; although of interesting note, her entire body was covered in elaborate, black tattoos and magic sigils. It was a far cry from being human anymore.

'_That damned pup got away.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

It was night.

Kiyoko guzzled from a cup of water, as she walked down the halls of the Hakurei Castle, going about her business. After that last excursion, she figured it was time for rest.

After, she planned to head out. To confront the night countryside- the time all had cautioned was the most dangerous- to see about that which plagued the evening. She'd make a dent in the night, scorn the sun and moon, and teach the prospective thieves fear again.

'_Or, something along those lines. ...The night is a time I've always desired to wander. This will be the first time I do it seriously, in the wake of my first rite, a year ago.'_ She used to do so with Milla quite often.

'_Maybe a nap first. I feel as though I'm learning far more of youkai combat going around and making my mistakes, than I am sitting under my mother's careful eye.'_

Soon, Kiyoko came to a table in the royal library. _'It'd do me good to consult the youkai bestiary once more. To avoid surprises. I don't like surprises.'_

This was the publically accessible royal library; the one with everything useful in it. The one for herself and her parents in the private chambers were full of her mother's boring books she used to pretend she was well-read, and some of her own novels she actually liked.

Kiyoko was not bound by any regulation here. She technically had a right to everything in the library, so return dates weren't a thing to her.

'_Let's take care not to destroy the royal library, however. That'd… be awkward.'_

Setting down the big cup, Kiyoko moved for the shelves.

It took a few minutes, searching the clean-but-dusty wood-and-stone library. Then, under the somewhat sterile white candles, Kiyoko found it.

'_Ah. Royal bestiary, as composed by Hieda no Aya.'_

Before, she may have considered the library somewhat disused and filthy. After having attended the abandoned shrine and the abandoned boat house on the Aoyama territory however, she had a new standard for what 'abandoned' looked like.

With the heavy tome in hand, Kiyoko made her way back to the table she decided to set up shop at.

There were Hakurei men there, one with his hand on the cup she'd sat down.

"Mmm?" A brown-haired man looked Kiyoko's way, and smiled. "Well, well. If it isn't the _heir."_

...Kiyoko gave them all a jaded look. _'Ho hum. I can just go get another glass, then. I'll study this outside the library.'_

When Kiyoko went to simply leave, a black-haired man stood up. "Hey- where ya goin'? We wanted to talk to you."

"I will rip your ribcage out of your body." Kiyoko decided. "This book will go deep into your skull."

...He smiled sheepishly, and looked to the three other guys at the table.

"My mother put you all up to this, didn't she?" Kiyoko looked over them all, her stare becoming sharper. "If you'd like to rape me, you're welcome to try."

They all began to look demotivated and disappointed. "Aa- ah…" The black-haired man faltered. "Ra- rape you? Umh."

The brown-haired guy furrowed his brows. "Fuck you. You can't just accuse us of that shit out of nowhere."

Kiyoko scanned their gazes. One man with longer black hair didn't seem phased by the accusation.

"I think she's just nervous."

"Nervous? She's always like this-"

"But of course. She's anti-social, after all."

"If you ask me, the royal family's _always_ acted like youkai." The black-haired man smirked. "The heir's a _perfect_ example."

Kiyoko was tempted to lash out, but she didn't want to consider the political ramifications. If her mother selected these men, surely she'd have known how violent she herself was.

As such, Kiyoko decided to walk away. So that she couldn't be followed, she drifted to the room's entrance and out, effectively teleporting out of the library.

The shady-looking guy at the table exhaled. She wasn't as impulsive as Hoshiko had said; not in the way he thought.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Kiyoko was preparing for bed.

Clad in her nighttime pajamas, she sat aside the bestiary, and snugged into her futon.

Dim white, blue and red candles created a purple mixture of color in the room. It was a comfy atmosphere.

'_My room always feels so free. Very much… my own.'_

Considering how high-profile she had to be outside of this room, letting herself relax inside here felt incredibly safe. No place was more pure, more fortified, than these highest chambers of the royal castle.

'_...Hmm.'_ She knocked on the wood floor beside her bed. _'I've likely just jinxed it.'_

Sliding the bestiary further aside, she looked at her small shelf of novels, and at the kotatsu on the far end of the room. She didn't particularly own a lot, but she liked how isolated it felt. Not that most needed stationery or necessities weren't just a hall or two away from here.

Most of the shrine's woodwork was well-warded to prevent massive fires from damaging it. _'Case in point, the candles I've got it. Though, they've also got precautions to go out once I've fallen asleep, or left, and to turn on when I wake back up.'_

'_Now, if only we could make the wax reform itself without needing to take it to an alchemist specifically. Wicks are destroyed to the point that new ones must be bought, and at that point, you ought to just buy a new candle outright…'_

She looked at her shelves again.

'_I wish I could spend all day in this room. ...I'd likely get tired of only being able to stare out one window, but it just-... feels so convenient. There's no possibility of leaving any sort of impression, while in here. No pressure, to more eloquently state it.'_

She could probably waste the better part of a day looking over everything in it again. Books she'd read years ago now sat collecting dust.

'_That time's come__ and gone.'_

She sank her head into her pillow. _'...I took a lot of chances today.'_

'_I hope tomorrow… is as informative, if not quite as intense. I don't know if I could get used to the feeling of my life being in jeopardy every day.'_

_Knock knock._ There was someone at her sliding door.

'_Ah, yes, of course. I did jinx it. No, I'm done.'_

She rolled out of the futon, onto her stomach.

Jaded, she came up to the sliding door in her pajamas, and flung it open.

...Looking pensive, one of the men from the library stood there, staring for a few seconds. "...I-"

"Shut up." Kiyoko held up a hand-

_Fwish._ Her katana was summoned. The blade was held centimeters before his throat. "Just-... I don't care for what _gods forsaken reason_ you've come here- I don't care if you're here to _leave homework or something-_ leave it _outside,_ whatever, just _go. Away."_

Brows furrowed, he opened his mouth again.

"If my _mother_ wants something, she can _get me herself."_ Kiyoko reiterated. "I don't have time for you _rabble."_

He shook his head. "Well, I- look, look-"

She began to slide her door shut. "No. _No,_ _you_ look. I am going to _sleep."_

"Yeah- that's fine- but-"

Kiyoko pointed her katana at his throat again. "But _what? What_ could _possibly_ be worth your life, right now?"

"...Like you'd _stab me."_ He rolled his eyes. "This wasn't even my fucking _idea._ Hoshik- I mean, your mother said-"

"Good night." Kiyoko slid the door shut.

'_I don't care. If it has to do with my mother, it's literally not worth my time. She can say whatever she wants to my face. Throwing idiots at me just wastes both of our time.'_

_Shoof._ Before she could ward it shut, he slid it open. "Your mother said you wanted to see me!"

Kiyoko blinked. "...Mmm. No."

_Shoof._ She slid it shut again.

_Shoof._ He slid it back open. "Do you even know _who I am…!?"_

"You could be _my father,_ and I'd still be _literal millimeters_ away from _stabbing you."_ Kiyoko was getting even more annoyed than she was before. "You know what? Spit it out. What do you want? What- can _I do_\- to make you _leave me alone?"_

"Gods…" He held his head. "This sucks. Look-... Hoshiko- she's seeking to arrange your marriage. She figured you were of that age, and-... I mean..."

'_Ah. So this is her idea.'_

"Yes, well." Kiyoko nodded. "Tell her to talk to me."

"Why _me?"_ He stepped back. "What you think-... I mean- if you have a problem, the right avenue'd be to go to her _yourself._ And I'm gonna bet, your word like… doesn't _exactly_ matter. Am I right?"

"Why confront me _now_ about this?" Kiyoko frowned. "At _genuinely_ the most inconvenient time? With no formal mentions- she'd never even _told me_ any of this was being _worked on._ I had no reason to suspect you were anything but a pervert."

"Well," he inhaled, "if you just shut the fuck up for ten seconds and listen to the people above you- maybe you'd _know_ a thing or two about the world."

...Kiyoko's frown grew. "I see. Is that all?"

"You were to have meetings with us _today."_ He asserted. "Hoshiko said- they'd happen _today._ They had to. _We're_ getting punished if they don't. And, between you and me… I fear _our actual leader,_ a little more than _you._ And it sounded like a great deal and everything- but _of course_ you're a complete weirdo."

"What a pleasant meeting." Kiyoko nodded. "You will be considered. Now shoo."

"There's-" He shook his head. "It-... does _not_ work like that. We gotta go to the room- and you need to get dressed, and-"

"Nope." Kiyoko reached for the door, to slide it shut again-

That's when he slipped inside, and pushed her away from the door. "And I don't have to take shit from _you. _I'll drag you down there kicking and screaming, _princess. _Between you and me, I knew all that shit about you being a warrior was just your dad being _him."_

'_If he's truly an official of some kind, injuring him would be complicated.'_

'_...Fuck it.'_

Kiyoko grabbed onto the collar of his kimono. "He- hey-" His expression flared, and he reached for her arm. "Fucking- _let go-"_

She marched over to the window, now holding onto him with both arms, as he tossed and struggled. He hadn't noticed her arm muscles, and her pajamas concealed her refined body; her training wasn't simply formality, and if it was, all the training she did on her own should have more than made up for it.

Standing atop her now-messy futon, Kiyoko pulled him into the air as hard as she could. _"Hra~h!"_

He clumsily latched onto the sides of the window. "Wh- what-" He realized what she was trying to do. "The _fuck-_ what're you _doing-"_

'_Kicking you out the window.'_ Kiyoko wasn't sure if he'd survive, or if him dying would complicate things. She didn't care. She had avoided suspicion for the murder of her other professor readily enough.

"Kiyoko." Then, another man's voice came from behind. "Must you be so violent?"

She looked back. It was the somewhat tired-looking man from the library, the one who gave her a bad impression.

'_Fuck me.'_ She flicked her eyes up. _'I'm so tired…'_

"He's the fourth general's son and apprentice." The straight-haired man stated. "To kill him here would be a tremendous, terrible loss all around. Don't you agree?"

"No?" Kiyoko looked jaded again. "I'd like to _go to bed._ I'm not leaving this room."

"Nngh-" The man she'd tossed into the window climbed out of it, shaking-

Kiyoko held her blade before his throat, with one arm. "If you all think you're strong enough to _force me out,_ I'd-... I'd like to see you _try."_

'_I just want to sleep. I just want to-... relax, and unwind. Fuck…'_

"Unlike the others, I was warned of your violent ways." The man held up his hands. "...I think I can work with you. If you'd have me as your husband, that is."

'_I hope I'm sleeping. This is a shit dream.'_

"Uuh…" A brown-haired man, one who Kiyoko hadn't seen before, leaned in through the door. "I brought y'guys some _rice crackers._ But, uu~h…" He held up the rice crackers in question. They were in a neat little box.

Kiyoko walked past the shady man, away from the aggressive general guy, and came up to the guy with the rice crackers.

"You know what?" Kiyoko had a proposition. "Am I able to set conditions? Did my mother tell you all anything like that?"

"She decides them." The tired, shady man clarified. "You are of no power."

'_...Right. Well.'_

"Excellent." Kiyoko let her eyes drift shut for a moment. Sleep called her again. "...Just-..."

She looked at the general guy, who'd been quiet since she almost chucked him out the window.

"I don't really care anymore." Kiyoko decided. "I really don't. Just- get out."

"We're going to face _serious_ repercussions if we leave." The tired, straight-haired guy reminded her. "...And- since we're not _technically_… we're not _not_ allowed to use any means necessary to get the meeting from you by tomorrow."

...Kiyoko raised her katana again. "If you'd like to fight-"

"I offer the Hakurei clan all of the Aoyama subsidiary's wealth." The tired man bowed to her.

'_I would really just love... to kill everybody in this room. I've killed youkai for less, at this point.'_

"I just want to go to _bed."_ Kiyoko insisted. "I-..."

"Please, work with me." The tired man bowed again. "We can get the procedure worked over in a few hours."

"As if she's going to _listen."_ The general guy folded his arms. "Especially with your _lame_ offer. I'm a _general's son._ She's the maiden, and I'm the master. That is how it is now, and that's how it _will be."_

'_This is my sword, and you're the sheath.'_

...They both idly focused on the guy holding the rice crackers. "Mmh…" He squirmed under everyone's gaze. "Whah…? What…"

Kiyoko moved for her futon. The general guy noticeably gave her a distance when she neared it, to avoid grappling range…

"Look." Then, he walked up behind her. "I'm _getting you_ to the _damn meeting room."_

He slid his arms up under hers, restricting her by the shoulders. "Wh- _aa-..."_

With her bound like this, he began to sloppily march back, trying to drag her from the room.

'_...On the bright side, it's not a direct attempt at molesting me, if anything.'_

"Hey- Aoyama fucker!" The apprentice general asked for help. "Get her legs!"

Unlike the general's apprentice, this tired and jaded young man was far scrawnier. "I-... I can't help but feel this is _probably not a good-"_

Before he could do anything, Kiyoko curled up in the apprentice general's grasp, and rolled her torso to the right. _"Hnn~..."_

_thump. _By tossing her momentum, she ended up bowling him over and onto his side. "Wh- _fuck…"_

She parted from his arms, as he couldn't keep his grip on her-

He latched onto her hair, and pulled.

'_Ow! I-... I just-...'_

_Wham!_ She stomped on his face, and he let go to fight her leg-

But then she was across the room, having teleported.

Her gaze was airy, the exhaustion getting to her. "You-... I've had enough. You will all leave now, or-..."

The tired guy stared down at the general's apprentice, as he slowly stood from the floor. "Nice going. As it would turn out, the rumors are true. Perhaps if you had _any_ intelligence gathering-"

"I'll knock you the _fuck out,_ Aoyama fuck." He raised his knuckles before the tired guy's face. "Don't _fuck_ with me."

Kiyoko considered how to best spook them. _'...I don't want to damage my room. But…'_

Then, she had an idea.

'_Milla told me about how potentially abusive relatives could be. She was never subject to it- but she'd read about it. Spouses and parents using blunt trauma on areas of the body not easily seen by the public…'_

'_Incisions inside the mouth. Bruises, which take time to form, and any kind of internal limb damage.'_

_Cli- click._ Kiyoko abandoned her katana, and stepped up to the general's apprentice.

'_I'm not a martial artist. I only know basic hand-to-hand combat. But…'_

He stepped back, bringing his fists up. "I-... I'll knock _you_ the fuck out, too. A real shame, too. You're beautiful, y'know."

"Mmh." Kiyoko parted her bangs. "I warned you."

"Go ahead an' _stab me."_ The general's apprentice grinned. "See what hell you end up in. Maybe you'd end up my wife either way. With a body like that, I'd still take ya."

_BAM._ Kiyoko slid up to his form, and delivered her knuckles to his gut in an instant. _"Rrgh-"_ Taking the punch, cringing, he threw a jab for her face-

_Pap- WHAM._ She let his punch hit her face, but powered through it, and hooked him in the gut again.

_BAM!_ She rammed her body against his, and he fell back into the wall, using it to remain standing.

_WHACK!_ Summoning her katana, she slammed the flat of it against his gut like a bat.

_THOOM!_ Then, letting go of it, she rammed her palm into his face, crushing the back of his head against a hard part of the shoji wall.

She looked back at the tired-eyed man. "Now you've _really_ crossed the line."

He snorted, and smiled sheepishly. "He- wasn't _joking,_ you know. If you injure us- it'd- _um-"_

Kiyoko walked up to him, while the apprentice general fell to his knees behind her.

'_My mother's pettiness, these idiots made victims of her whim and life's circumstances… it's times like these I'm reminded why I must fix the village as well. Why I hate its people as it is right now.'_

_WHAM- CRACK!_ She punched him in the gut hard enough for something in his ribs to give. _"Huu- rgh- fuchk-"_

Then, Kiyoko felt a pulse of adrenaline, as he cringed back. "Your hate for me is _divine."_

She threw a high kick forward-

_WHAM- CRUNCH!_ It met his jaw, but she didn't stop there.

Leaving the floor, Kiyoko's legs became alive with holy white energy.

Her whole body tilted back, and she kicked up into the air.

_WHAM- FWAM- WHAM!_ Three times, the ascending, stepping motions of her legs drew white crescents in the air.

Holy energy provided an unreal boon to her physical prowess, allowing her to throw herself with her movements. Just by thrusting the tips of her sandals into the air, she was able to carry herself up with the jaw of the man she was kicking.

_BAM!_ The man's head was launched straight up into the hard wood ceiling. On impact, he was spiked back down to the floor.

Kiyoko had teleported into kneeling, beneath him.

_Thud! _"Nn- nngh…" As he landed, she used her hands to pillow his face, so it specifically wouldn't be marred by a harsh impact with the floor.

...Slowly, she stood, gazing down the man with the rice crackers.

Strolling up to him, she took his box of rice crackers.

"...Um." He scratched the back of his own head. "Can I, like-... um… hang out, maybe?"

"No." Kiyoko decided.

"...Ah." With that, he began to backpedal. "Um. See ya."

"See ya." Kiyoko saw him off, and proceeded back for the apprentice general.

He held his stomach and face, as he stood-

_CRUNCH._ The hilt of Kiyoko's katana met between his legs, where his ass was.

_WHAM- WHAM- WHAM._ Kiyoko realized she could just use her hilt to pummel his insides, thrusting it against his gut repeatedly.

Turning away, trying to shield himself, he now stood stomach-first against the wall, teeth bared, eyes shut. "Yh-"

_WHUMP._ Kiyoko palmed the back of his head, and his face rammed against the wall. Clutching his hair, she pulled him straight down to the floor, onto his face. "Nn- _nnrgh…"_

'_...Ah, right. Not supposed to damage his face.'_

"Heal." Kiyoko held her katana over him.

His body began to glow with white, satiating light. It soothed, and the redness of his face began to fade. "Aaa-"

_WHUNK._ Kiyoko punted him, rolling him over. _"Ghk-"_

_BOOM!_ She leapt, and as she landed, she plunged her sword's hilt right into his crotch. Force rippled in a circle across the floor, the power she used staggering.

His eyes went vacant.

"To make sure you _don't come back…"_ Kiyoko centered her gaze on the tired-eyed man. "I'll drain your pride."

"You- whauh- aa-" The tired-eyed man freaked out, crawling back on the floor. "Jh- just- lemme-"

'_If I can heal them…'_

_WHAM!_ Kiyoko kicked him in the jaw.

'_It's too late for this bullshit.'_

Kiyoko held her katana up, the holy tip glistening under the comfy candlelight of her room.

"None of this can be changed." She grinned, and thrust it down.

The blade went between his legs.

'_If I can heal them, I can make them sorry at my leisure. This pain should keep them away- for good.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Dried blood on the floor was covered up with old clothes from the vanity; ones which Kiyoko never wore.

She slept peacefully in her futon, a young adult novel laying amidst the covers next to her.

The morning was here. Slowly, she blinked her eyes open…

'_Less sleep than I'd have liked…'_

'_Yet, to think it were so easy. When fighting youkai, my prerogative was to finish them off. I hadn't realized…'_

'_Healing magic is an effective torture tool.'_

At the end of the other evening, Kiyoko had healed them, and let them voluntarily leave; not without a few souvenirs, too. She'd cut the insides of their cheeks; a minor injury, but likely a deeply irritating one to both get treated, diagnosed, and to explain.

'_Whatever my mother plans for them had better be worse than death as well. I put them through cruel and unusual punishment.'_

...Then, she grinned in her bed. _'The term, 'cruel and unusual'... it's funny. It inherently sounds disproportionate, even if what I did was exactly that.'_

She had a vague plan, for today. One which didn't involve her mother. _'If she sends more idiots, I'm actually fine with it. As long as I don't kill them… they're target practice.'_

'_More importantly… I need to ask my father something.'_

'_I'd like to see the strength of the oni first-hand.'_


	8. Rumble Mountain!

Kiyoko Hakurei sought more power.

_CRUNCH._ A young man's arm bent the wrong way. A talisman was adhered to his mouth like tape. _"Mmm!"_ His voice muffled, eyes wide, he shook in place from the intense pain.

He was Yuji. One of Toyoshige's hired men, who she remembered from an evening over a year ago.

Kiyoko had him leaned over a sink in some backroom of the Hakurei Castle. His face was against the counter, as she broke his arm thoroughly.

"Tough it _out."_ She affirmed, if he could even hear her. "Tough. It. Out."

...Leaning over him, she could see his tears.

_SHINK._ She drew her blade into his crotch from behind. The way he spasmed and writhed, blood trickling down the blade, it made her own heart churn and twist.

But, it was exciting. He was someone who'd dare defile her. Even though it was a year ago, she hadn't forgotten. No, certainly not. Normally, there was no way to take the abuse back to the abusers like this.

With the power of healing, however? It came all _too_ easy. No one could prosecute you, if there were no wounds to prove wrongdoing.

Getting revenge was sweet. Petty, perhaps only momentary, but it scratched an itch Kiyoko needed scratching for a _long_ time. _'A long, long time…'_

"Heal." She held her katana over the dying Yuji's body, and white, holy light pulsed through it.

"Khh—" He awoke from shock to dulled pain, yet he still shook from the horrifying echoes of what she'd done to his lower regions. _"Fhuh'…"_

'_This nobody would dare make me nothing, too.'_

'_All who challenge you are making a dare. They're betting that you are less than they are. They are betting that you are theirs, and within their judgment. They are betting you are weak, and they are strong. They have the power to change the world; your world. You don't.'_

'_Unless… you do. Unless you change- their- world. The power of creation and control.'_

"Want me to cut it again?" Kiyoko tormented him.

"Mmh— mm!" Yuji shook his head and yelled, muffled by the many talismans layered over his mouth. "Mmmh!"

"I can't seem to hear you." She pressed her katana near his crotch, so his legs and underside could feel the cool— somewhat damp— blade's edge.

"_Mmm~! Mmrgh!"_

'_...I'm bored of this.'_

She knew it to be true. This wasn't a struggle anymore. She'd already bloomed pain across his body. As fun as it would be to leave him with wounds he'd remember for the rest of his life— lasting or not— it didn't make her any richer to continually afflict them.

'_I've already gotten my high. Back to work for me.'_

Carefully, Kiyoko wiped the blood off her katana with her talismans.

With her sandal-clad foot, she slid some talismans across the floor under Yuji, and wiped up the blood there.

Then, she took the talismans off his face.

"Scream, and you'll wake up in an alley." Kiyoko promised him, face close to his. "Do you understand me?"

Yuji swallowed, still crying. "Yh—... yeah…" He held himself where the katana had pierced him. It was almost like he could still feel it; an emptiness left where the magic healing had to recover him.

"I'm happy for you." She smiled. Saying nothing more, she turned away to leave.

Then, her form was gone, a blur in time and space.

Yuji dropped to his knees, sobbing hard. The pain was unreal, even now… and with the adrenaline gone, he was going to be a wreck for awhile, he was sure.

'_Instinctually, I recoil at the harm of another human being.'_

'_But, the shock and horror soon becomes subdued. Why? Because they deserve it.'_

'_It may be hypocritical, to presume them shallow and undeserving of happiness, but… my intuition tells me that they are trash. Rotten, worthless, greedy and futile.'_

'_They lust after me, but not my mind; they lust for my body. The image of the maiden, but not the maiden herself. They lust for power, but they do not understand what power is.'_

'_That is the difference between them and me. Such that I am the judge, and they are the guilty. In one bout of sheer, stupid ambitiion, they would step on my dreams, personality and world, to juxtapose their own.'_

'_And, on a societal level… that kind of ambition deserves no quarter. Everyone has an infinite combination of stupid, foolish, fruitless and destructive wishes that they are ignorant to the effects of. In their lack of situational awareness, they destroy the world's care.'_

'_So, why spare them a yen of thought? Strike them down where they stand, and there will be no hassle, no fuss, and no discussion. They'd do the same to your own thinking, no matter how well thought-out. Be it by your own— perhaps flawed— judgment, or their own.'_

'_We never learn, and we never will.'_

'_Such is why one fights.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Rumble Mountain! | 7

Kiyoko walked the battlefield.

Clad in her black-red armor, she walked alongside her father, and a legion of Hakurei samurai.

The operation would be— if all went according to plan— a relatively safe one. Even if not, the Hakurei royalty themselves could easily escape by their own merit.

'_The battlefield is an area between the southern outskirts of the Hakurei village. South of there is a large plain, leading up to Youkai Mountain, and the forest at the foot of it.'_

The geology from here to there was a simple one, but also deadly.

Fighting oni was unlike fighting regular youkai. With regular youkai, it was perfectly feasible to repeatedly, aggressively damage bones, muscles, bodily structures, and whittle them down by physical means. If they were spirits, it'd likely be a purely elemental duel.

Oni didn't work like that. They healed faster than the most alpha beastman, and were tougher than golems. Their skin resisted fire more often than not, and it was as thick as armor.

_Bam, bam, bam._ The ground around Kiyoko shook unevenly, long-flattened and loosened soil and grass distilled further by the rumbling vibrations.

To her right, house-sized yin-yangs were unleashed from somewhere closer to the village, and they rebounded hundreds of meters to the right of the samurai legion she was a part of. Their impacts were seismic, geysers of grass and soil erupting in their wakes.

They were cast by proper kannushi and shrine maidens, whole teams who worked together to summon large projectiles.

'_Truly some of the ultimate ranged siege magic. ...Not much when compared to the oni, but it's something.'_

The giga-yin yang volleys were more to dissuade the youkai that _weren't_ oni. While the large yin-yangs _could_ pressure oni, this battlefield wasn't exclusive to the oni.

These fields were also a free-for-all of some of the toughest youkai the land had to offer, all struggling for dominance of the central field.

'_...It's not even a good vantage point itself. The youkai fight amongst themselves, so it will never be easily captured. To capture it… you'd have already won and stifled all resistance.'_

'_Maybe that's why the fighting happens here. The youkai could be more strategic, but thankfully, they all have their own interests. Unlike humanity, most of them do not work together, barring the oni and tengu.'_

'_Us, we can't be so forceful. Humans are fragile and weak, and aside from our faith, we have no qualities that set us apart from even the most feeble youkai.'_

She remembered her thinking earlier, about how the smart youkai would keep _away_ from places like these. _'This isn't a place for smart youkai. It's a place for powerful youkai.'_

The Hakurei had enough warriors to cycle in and out of the battlefield. Their truly elite would serve to keep their side pressured, while waves of samurai in large legions like this were sent in at once to overwhelm targets and to get more presence.

'_The goal here… is largely for me to get a grasp of this battlefield. When I come into power, it will be my responsibility, as it is my father's now.'_

As such, this legion was filled with more royal samurai and elites than it would normally be. _'Because, if us royalty were to die, it'd basically be all over, so there is seldom a notion as 'too safe' in our context. Though, ideally, we also hold our own. We are hailed as the greatest warriors of the clan, after all. We have honor to uphold.'_

From here, the shimmering lights of other elite samurai in the distance clued the legion in on acceptable battles to intervene on.

Kiyoko's eyes searched the landscape around them.

Along their flank, a pack of seemingly regular wolves darted up out of a hiding place amidst piled up, distilled grass, before noticing how many people there were.

'_Quite close to us. If they're just regular wolves, that may have been a bad idea.'_

_BAM!_ One was crushed flat by a huge yin-yang from above—

_SHUNK- SHINK!_ Two were immediately slashed in passing by Hakurei samurai who immediately blew past them in one motion, faster than the wolves could think.

"Rrgh—" In that moment, the alpha wolf started to growl—

_THUNK._ An arrow met the underside of its head when it tilted it up, skewering it straight through.

With the small pack promptly murdered, a confetti storm of talismans came down from above, to treat the corpses on the chance they were— or would become— some manner of youkai.

Kiyoko looked back at the well-decorated, older shrine maidens who emitted golden light behind herself. They were carrying entire satchels filled to the brim with custom-crafted paper talismans. _'If I remember correctly, it's what they spend a lot of their day's time doing. Drawing up more talismans to liberally expend out here.'_

'_I wonder what those wolves thought they were doing out here. Scavenging, maybe. This is especially no place for something less than human.'_

Yasuoka gave a nod, and spoke louder than the white noise of rumbling and distant clicking blades. "The threat has passed. Move."

As they continued their long walk into the midst of this great, grey-accented plain, Kiyoko could make out the remnants of past encounters.

Giant, foreign fauna that laid bound with chains. Red-white runes glowed along them, and the plants seemed long-deceased, half-compost along with the talismans that hung on them.

Black, cracked pools were long-settled on the grass, framing large, rotten corpses. They were of remarkable beast men who had long since been defeated, and everything that would pick at them had already gotten their fill. Now, they were too disgusting for even the scavengers, and no one cared enough to move them.

_boom, boom, boom._ Those huge, bounding yin-yang orbs crashed into the woods at the foot of Youkai Mountain, their force becoming stifled by the trees there.

_fwi- fwi- fwish._ So that the oni couldn't use them, with brilliant pillars of light, they were dispelled.

Ahead, an encounter was neared.

_BOOM!_ Kiyoko was jostled inside her armor, by the raw force of something meeting the shaken soil. _'Aah…'_ It was hard to _see,_ amidst all of the warriors set up around herself. _'How does my father see anything—'_

_BAAAM!_ Then, the source of the unholy noise was visible through the dispersing samurai and maidens around herself. They all spread out strategically, so everyone could get a good view of what it was they were approaching.

A single elite samurai that had kept it distracted at best was dialing back towards them—

Then, his form blinked out, as he teleported. 'Floating', or in essence, teleporting, was not a strategy limited to Kiyoko. It was a trait gifted Hakurei possessed; and elite samurais were among this higher echelon.

_BOOM- BOOM!_ Where he used to be, his foe roared two massive ore clubs straight down into the soil, jostling the entire samurai battalion with this one motion.

"_Mmh…"_ She was an oni. Though she was six feet tall— towering over most humans, but still of human proportions— she was at least ten times as strong.

The hilts of her weapons were made of a rough steel; the result of some basic metalworking knowledge. Past the hilt, each club was misshapen rock and mineral, of unknown materials. Each was taller than she was.

Her skin was ash grey, and her hair long and black. Two little horns poked from her bangs, out of her forehead, and two curled from under her ears and past long hair strands.

She wore only a loincloth, and her bare skin bared no wounds. The elite samurai meant nothing to her, and she'd been spending the past entire day or two trying to earn a high off engaging him and some of his cohorts.

"Rrrh—" A feral, unaffiliated wolfman sprinted from the distance, travelling at a horse's pace towards her. _"HRRH—"_

All of the Hakurei samurai stood guarded. It looked as if it wanted to pick one of them off in passing, so everyone readied to make sure they weren't separated or felled with one powerful swipe.

But, the wolfman went for the oni instead.

He swung an arm, claws arched for her neck.

They met. The oni woman didn't so much as tilt, and the wolfman had thrown himself at her with such force he'd snapped into a spin, as if using her neck like a pole. "Rrh— nnh—" The beast growled idly, knowing it attacked the wrong target.

Dropping one ore club, the oni girl comfortably reached up—

_CRUNCH._ She grabbed it by the neck, more like how one would grasp an object off a shelf, as if its great speed meant nothing. There wasn't any immediate aggressiveness behind it.

_CRACK!_ With one grip, its head popped right off.

Seeing the Hakurei, she had an easygoing, hearty smile. "...About _time."_ She knew, if they were in a group like this, they'd be more likely to get greedy with their engagements, and would stop running as much.

_WOOSH!_ She cast the wolfman's corpse at them, and it came forward like a trebuchet's rock.

_SHINK- SHING- SHANK!_ Three samurai attacked the corpse at once, turning it into bloody confetti with three distinctly timed jumping slashes.

The spine still travelled unhindered, meant for Yasuoka. He stared it down as it came, hurtling like a missile—

_BAM!_ But a shrine maiden leapt out before him, and cast a _Cautionary Barrier_ to defend him. "Ee— nnh…" Rattled, the brown-haired shrine maiden shivered behind the barrier's gold-white pane. The spine's impact had cracked it some, and the bone that hit it had exploded into fragments.

Both ore clubs held again, the oni brought her arms back overhead like the clubs were wood swords, and pushed her chest out, showing off her endowment. _"He~y, _boys! Y'want some a' _this!?_ Fufufu…"

Yasuoka held up his blade. _"That,_ Kiyoko, is an oni."

Amidst the day's odd chilliness, the volume of the other samurai yelling, and maidens moving into positions behind them, Kiyoko replied somewhat numbly. "I can see that."

_CLICK!_ A samurai passed up to the oni and attacked her in an instant. His blade met her skin like a tossed stone would meet a brick wall.

_CLACK- THUNK- CLAKACK- CLICK._ The loud pattering noises intensified, arrows meeting her in short order, and more samurai coming up to try and distract her.

But, from where she stood, she could tell Yasuoka and Kiyoko didn't plan on engaging.

"_Beast!"_

"_Monster!"_

"_Temptress!"_

The three elite samurai who were attempting fruitlessly to carve into her had made a circle around her—

_WOOWOOWOOSH._ She spun around, holding her flat rock-and-mineral ore clubs out like fans.

The sheer wind off the sudden motion sent the samurai— and the maidens behind them— all skidding back with ease.

'_For clarity, our legion here is composed of ten elites, fifteen mixed Hakurei samurai, and twenty or so shrine maidens, with three kannushi. I assume since the kannushi serve a similar role to the maidens, the imbalanced ratio was unintentional.'_

Then, the oni woman stomped the ground.

_KABOOM!_ She sprung from the floor, meters into the air in a near instant.

Kiyoko almost fell over from the sheer force that her leap exerted on the ground. _'That— that power…'_

The oni woman roared down towards her and her father like a meteor. _'Wait—'_

_WOOSH!_ Yasuoka erupted from the floor along her side, up at the oni woman.

_SHI~NG!_ In the air, as the oni swung her clubs down at once, he drew his own magic adamantite sword across her abs.

_Fwap- fwap- fwapfwapfwapfwapfwap!_ A sea of talismans erupted from the maidens all around the encounter, meeting the oni as she descended—

Kiyoko's form vanished, before the oni touched down atop her.

_KRABOOM- BOOMBOOMBOOM!_ The moment the oni met the floor, the sand-esque soil all around her exploded into an earthy pillar of dust, and raw power.

When Kiyoko re-appeared amidst the dust, she found it hard to breathe immediately. "Khk— kauh— kauff—" She hacked out dust she accidentally inhaled.

Through her eyes that began to tear, rapidly blinking, Kiyoko saw the oni.

Her form wrapped in light from the erupting talismans, the ashen oni woman's mouth snapped into a glorious, beaming leer.

Then, in an instant, Kiyoko saw the light snap closer. _"GOTCHA—"_

Feeling the wind off of both clubs swinging at once, Kiyoko allowed herself to fall towards her side off the wind that came before the oni's swings.

"Nngh—" Kiyoko rolled on her back and arms, marking a C-shape in the dirt with her motion around the oni.

The oni woman faced where Kiyoko would have fallen— but she didn't know Kiyoko went as far as to roll a three-quarters circle around her.

Kiyoko attempted to attack. Standing atop a barrier summoned by her own talismans, Kiyoko ascended and carved her blade up the oni's back.

It was like dragging her katana along a stone road. A distinct _scrape,_ as her blade went up the oni's back. _'It didn't do anything.'_ That wasn't flesh she met. None that she remembered trying to cut, at the very least.

"Hmmh?" The oni woman smiled, and turned around.

Kiyoko teleported directly before her, and thrust her sword into the air from a ten meter's distance.

_CLICK!_ The sword shot like a missile to the oni's chest, but bounced off effortlessly.

'_What…'_

_FWAA- FWAA- FWAASH!_ That's when pillars of holy white began to erupt under the oni, cast by other maidens around the encounter's edges.

Kiyoko was pulled back by a samurai and a kannushi. The elite samurai formed a circle around the oni, and Yasuoka stood in the midst, right before her.

"Rrgh—" Her form crackling with weakening, holy magic, the oni glared up at Yasuoka. "Fuckin' _pussy—"_

_WOOSH._ She cast her club through him.

Talismans fluttered from where his torso and pelvis were separated. This was a clone made of holy magic, talismans and illusions.

The three samurai around the oni held their blades to the sky, and at their sides, three great maidens knelt in prayer.

"_Oni Banishing Demon Seal…"_ Their bodies glowed as they chanted.

_WOOSH!_ One group of maidens and samurai were targeted by a tossed ore club—

_BAM- CRACK!_ A maiden got in the way, summoning a barrier. It exploded into fragments, and she wilted to the side. _"Nnh— anh—"_

_BAM! _A second maiden summoned another barrier. The club ended up halfway lodged inside. Behind her, three more maidens messily threw up random barriers to try and stop the projectile.

"_Dark God Sealing Circle!"_

_FRVRAR!_ Violent, white energy lit up along the samurai's blades.

They drew a circle in the sandy dirt with their magic swords.

_BOOM!_ The oni woman sprung from the floor, to escape the radius of the seal. Kiyoko shook in her suit again—

_BOOM!_ There was a blast along the floor, of holy energy. A greater maiden was thrown into the air off of a holy reaction, to stop the oni.

"_Reflect!"_ She held her arms out, and a sphere of barrier energy erupted around herself.

_TI~NG!_ When the oni's body met her, their momentums were both neutralized, stopping them both mid-air.

Running into the circle, five samurai with large packs on their backs drew the starts of long bands of chains they carried.

"_Huu~!"_

"_Hrah!"_

"_Go!"_

"_Hrrgh!" _One by one, they tossed a hook up into the air, billowing wind carrying their tosses towards the oni woman.

The chains glowed with red, gold and white, lighting up the dim overcast that had set in over the cold battlefield.

"Rrh—" The oni woman clutched a hook that latched onto her right arm. _"Chains—_ huh—"

_WOOSH!_ As she descended, now bound by four of the five tossed hooks, she beamed.

_BAM!_ The soil seemingly suffered a whole wave of force when she landed—

_CLICK!_ She pulled on a chain, tugging a samurai closer—

_BOOM!_ One oni fist met his armor.

_CRACK!_ The armor exploded, and a shockwave of blood exploded from his chest. _"Hh—"_

With both arms, she drove her remaining ore club into one of the chains.

_CLACKACKACKACK!_ Twirling the ore club like one would twirl a fork through spaghetti, she tore the chainpack right off of one of the samurai's backs.

_FWAAFWAAFWAASH!_ Three more pillars of judgment exploded beneath her, propelling her into the air some—

_BOOM- BAM- BOOM!_ Yin-yang orbs bombarded her enmasse, in organized patterns to divide force all over her whole body—

_BOOMBOOMBOOM!_ Needles exploded in her thick flesh, bathing her in white.

Despite the cuts left by the bomb-like blasts, her skin pieced itself back together at a monstrous rate, undoing the immediate damage.

"_Heh—"_ She beheld the white-gold chaos all around herself. _"Hehahaha~!"_ It was a rush. All the light and color, and the massive force that she was met with— it was silly enough to make her laugh in incredulity.

_CLICK. CLICK- CLACK._ The three remaining chainbearers mounted their packs into the ground, at the edges of the circle.

All around it, maidens were mounted in prayer.

The oni saw them, and smiled. She snapped into a run towards some of them—

_TING!_ Her head met the inside of a cylindrical barrier that began to build. "Wh— _rrgh—"_ Bringing her ore club back, she planned to bash right through—

Yasuoka didn't want all the effort to be undone so easily. Fights with oni could take hours, or in many cases, _days._ Costly, only managing to serve as mere deterrents to the oni by virtue of being annoying to fight, than actually succeeding to _harm_ any oni.

This endeavor as it was already was nothing if not immensely wasteful. It was almost certain they'd capture, maybe even kill this particular oni, but they were _one_ oni. It took a huge chunk of focus and resources to bring down _one_ of the whole mountain.

'_...I see why, now.'_

'_Only because so many things keep the oni at bay, do they not so easily push our village over. They are satiated by their war with the tengu, and with the random nothing youkai around the mountain itself.'_

Yasuoka appeared before the oni woman, and brought his blade up to meet her ore club.

The noise met by their clash was unearthly. Space itself seemed to bend, air shooting out with enough ferocity between the club and the blade to mark cracks in the barrier around them.

"Ha—" The oni woman's eyes snapped wider in slight surprise. Now _that_ was a clash, she felt. Why wouldn't the other samurai have a similar exchange with her? It left her arms recoiling, her club cast back into the air, all her force reversed.

Yasuoka would have muttered a curse or an insult, but he kept himself focused. He wouldn't slip up in front of his daughter.

_SHUNK._ A geyser of white shot out horizontally from the oni's chest, like an arrow through a lesser beastman.

That was Yasuoka's sword, when he stood at her side, having shoved the katana backhand into her ribcage. He'd taken all her force, and plunged it right back into her.

Her mouth snapped into a greedy beam. He _hurt_ her.

She reached up to grab onto him. She wasn't going to let a human like _that_ go— not so easily—

But, his form vanished, as she almost clutched his shoulder.

Irritation spiked through her mind. _Of course,_ a human would be so tactless, so petty and so much of a pussy.

She looked at the praying maidens. She'd see how he liked it— when they were dead, and it was his fault.

_TING!_ But, when she punched the barrier, it was far more actualized than she expected, unyielding to her force.

The maidens put their hands on the barrier.

"_Evil Sealing Circle."_ They actualized the cylindrical pillar of holy magic.

The chains began to pull the oni back. Soundlessly, white began to fill the space amidst the sparkling, glass-like borders.

The talismans, their curses, the holy energy coursing through her body, and the chains all worked together, forming a system made explicitly, _exactly_ to counter her existence and force.

"_Rrgh—"_ She knelt down, teeth barred.

Then, the borders of the great barrier were filled with pure white.

...When the magic was gone, the borders released, the oni was trapped there, the chains now buried in the earth, holy energy crackling along her limbs.

"Nnn…" She had an awkward smile, knelt there with chains restricting her legs. The chains around one arm now acted like cuffs, binding her wrists together.

With the binding of the oni, there was no celebration. These seals wouldn't hold her forever, and to waste a moment like this would be a huge failure.

Yasuoka stepped up to her. "...Well?"

She grinned up at him. "Well _whah?_ Y'know, gotta say…" She wiggled where she was bound, her chest swaying around. "Yer flashy soldiers could afford to be a bit more _manly._ Such a damn _bore,_ runnin' around like rabbits, tryin'a chase them down when they pussy out. Y'all came out here ta _fight,_ didn'cha?"

Despite her informal way of speaking, her voice was deep and soft, reminding Kiyoko of an elegant woman. _'How peculiar.'_

"Battling you is no matter of pleasure." Yasuoka returned. "We fight hard to survive."

"If ya say so…" She didn't look like she agreed. "Never felt a life like yours was worth livin'."

"Likewise."

'_Such is the essence of disagreement, isn't it.'_

Kiyoko panned her gaze to the one man who was punched earlier. It seemed the shrine maidens had healed him, but his armor would probably remain broken until they got back to the village, and to the smiths.

"Men." Yasuoka beckoned his samurai and Hakurei faithful. "Maidens. Men— come over here. Maidens, empower my sword."

Unlike most other youkai, an oni could not be captured. Once they regained their strength, they would break free with effortless ease, no matter _how_ they were sealed.

'_...So. This is how an ideal victory against oni looks, then. Can't say I'm thrilled.'_

Yasuoka stepped back, letting maidens surround him. They placed their hands on the blade, feeding white light into it.

There wasn't much the other samurai could _do,_ aside from stand watch.

"Oh?" The oni smiled with surprising ease. "You want to kill me?"

Yasuoka didn't verbally reply, believing the way he glared and held his sword to be reply enough.

"Mmm…" She blinked slowly. "I'd like to see you try."

Yasuoka smiled.

"Observe, Kiyoko." He began to poise his blade, as the maidens retreated from him. "This is how _I_ fell my oni."

"As if you did any a' the work." The oni woman retorted. "...Actually, yeah, let 'er see. She'll know how much of a coward ya look like."

He gave his head a single shake, as if to dismiss the notion.

The samurai and maidens gave him a generous width, as he reeled the holy blade back. A smooth line of afterimages were left by the katana.

'_...I feel like, there may be a better way.'_

_SHINK- CRACK!_ Yasuoka swung in a near instant.

"Nghk-" The oni woman's eyes widened.

The blade had mounted partially into her neck.

_SHUNK!_ He drew the blade back quickly. "...Maidens. My blade again, quickly!" She was going to take more than one cut.

"Yh—" The oni had a big, wry grin despite her bleeding slit. "You call that a _hit…?"_

_Fvhir._ Once again, Yasuoka's blade lit up with holy energy. "You won't feel the final one." Sometimes, oni of thicker skin took more than one incision. He hoped he could be stylish and claim her life with one, but twice or thrice should be just as fine.

"Um! Sir!" A samurai began to yell. "Our flank! We're—"

Silently, a stone came from very much distant brush.

_KRACK- SPLACK._ Through the lesser samurai's helmet, a simple stone smashed the metal, and went right through his skull.

'_Oo— oh.'_ Alarmed, Kiyoko jumped slightly. _'Damn— what hit him?'_

An impact met the floor.

It was an indescribable, cataclysmic impact. Kiyoko wasn't sure where, why, or how.

"_Nngh—"_ Kiyoko found herself in the air. The dry soil beneath her had been blown away by _something,_ taking her with the rising earth.

'_That— hurt…'_

In the air, before she could fall, she landed ass-first on a barrier platform she made under herself. "Nnh… he- _heal."_ Holding up an arm, she commanded her faith with one word.

'_That's my legs mended. But…'_

All around her was a thick, grey and brown plume. _'This must be the fog of war I've heard about. But— where is my father? Where are the others—'_

Amidst the fog below, Kiyoko saw it.

_RIP! _A samurai's arm was torn asunder, ripped straight from its socket, taking chest bones with it. That man had been killed nearly instantly.

The being responsible turned, facing another samurai.

_RIP- CRACK._ She pulled down on both his arms, after gripping his shoulders. Both arms were torn right from his body, and he shattered into a mess of armor parts and gore.

She had two long horns, and wild pink hair. She wore a tattered green skirt, and a salmon-colored undershirt that tightly hugged her breasts, tied in place by a red ribbon.

Kiyoko's eyes widened, as she beheld the monolithic tree trunk the pink-haired oni slung cartoonishly overhead. Two big, metal ball-and-chains clasped around the oni's wrists did nothing to hold her back.

_BOOM!_ When it met the armless, sundered corpse's ground, the earthy explosion that resulted was a spectacle unlike Kiyoko had seen before.

'_The state of the ground left the violence to my imagination— but I could never have dreamed of how real the violence still is.'_

She hid behind the barrier platform she was seated on; to avoid splashing dirt that'd blind her, or rocks ejected from the soil that'd maim her.

_Fwa- fwa- fwap!_ Talismans rushed from the dust and smoke to meet the pink-haired oni below. But, from the fog came one of the maidens, inadvertently rushing straight into the oni's grasp.

The oni grabbed onto her, and Kiyoko saw the moment where the girl knew her life was forfeit.

_CRUNCH._ The oni bit deep into the girls bicep. Then, as she inhaled the flesh there, she tilted the maiden back—

_CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH._ She began eating the maiden's entire arm, stuffing it down her mouth, each bite rending bone and turning the limb to mush.

The pink-haired, beautiful oni woman began to glow, taking on a pink-green light, similar to her hair and dress.

As the dead— or soon to be dead— shrine maiden fell away, the oni held her arms out.

Twin streams of pink-green talismans roared out into the fog, composed by magic, to mirror and mock the designs of Hakurei talismans.

When the oni leapt, four blood-tinted yin-yang orbs actualized in the air to join her. As she fell, they spread out—

_BOOM!_ Her impact with the floor made enough foggy explosion of raw dust and power. _'Gods…'_

_SPLASH- SPLACK- SPLASH!_ The orbs, on impact with samurai and maidens below, carved through their body as if they disintegrated their bones and flesh, reducing them to clouds of blood.

Kiyoko searched for her father. Soon however, she realized…

'_His goal in extreme danger… it would only be to flee. To let the oni massacre this battalion, so we ourselves may continue to lead. Yet...'_

It felt wrong to her. Additionally, this was so many of their resources. _'If we let the elites die here, it'd be a huge setback, wouldn't it?'_

As the pink-haired oni's self-enchantment magic wore thin, so did the translucent, green-pink Hakurei bow she'd made in her wild pink hair.

She saw some of the organs and flesh of the deceased wolfman who died far prior nearby.

_Crunch!_ Picking up a thigh, she bit into it, and swallowed. Green-pink, ethereal wolf ears poked up, encasing her horns in the next second.

When a samurai passed her side to distract her—

_BOOM- SHUNK!_ She thrust a fist into his gut, three huge needle-like claws forged of pink-green magic blooming from her knuckles.

_fwush._ With a simple, meaty noise, his ribcage was removed from his body, trapped along her claws. The front chestplate of his armor came with it. He was killed instantly in this moment, if it wasn't apparent.

Kiyoko stood up, and swallowed.

"_Everyone!"_ She yelled. _"Run!"_

The pink-haired oni looked up from below. Kiyoko could see her green eyes piercing through the fog.

Kiyoko's form vanished.

_KRACK!_ The barrier she was standing on exploded into fragments. The wolfman's leg was chucked straight through it, with enough ferocity to break it completely.

Now on the ground, Kiyoko looked for the others. _'I can't see anything through all this fog— except for her eyes, and—'_

Then, she saw the vague light of Hakurei talismans, wielded by other shrine maidens.

"_Ibaraki~!"_ A maiden somewhere out of vision yelled.

"_Distract her! _Get— get the Hakurei away!" In this scenario, 'the Hakurei' referred to Kiyoko and her father.

'_Ibaraki…'_ Kiyoko remembered the name. _'It's one of those oni? Out here?'_

Ibaraki, one of the four devas of the mountain, named in reference to her similarity to the Ibaraki-douji of lore. Her power was second only to her cruelty.

'_Our royal court would really prefer it weren't this way, but most of them seem to be in agreement: that these oni are some sort of resurgence of the might commanded over the oni centuries ago.'_

"Where is he!? I don't see him—"

"I don't sense him, either…"

_RIP. _Ibaraki was heard amidst the frantic warriors, sundering someone's limbs. "...You human fodder don't get it?"

"_There it is!"_

_THUNK- THUNK!_ Arrows met Ibaraki uselessly, leaving trails of light in the dirty fog.

"He's _already gone."_ Her leer was wide. "You've all been left _for me."_

One of the plain Hakurei samurai was seen before her in the fog, blade held up shakily.

Thinking Ibaraki didn't see her, he ran up along her side, to cut at her throat. This close to her, there was no running for him.

She turned to face him.

_CRA- CRACK!_ She bit the katana as it came for her head, shattering it hard enough that not even a sliver of steel was left on the hilt.

Her hands gripped the sides of his head, careful not to crush it. "Nn— aa—" He froze, then shut his eyes.

Ibaraki headbutt him with her forehead.

_SPLACK- SPLACK- SPLACK!_ His head was blown right off his shoulders, a cone of blood shooting out between her hands, the entire skull liquified by the force.

'_She's tearing through our ranks like butter.'_

Kiyoko poised herself and yelled, again. "We must not all _die here! _Those unfit to fight— _leave this battle!"_

Ibaraki's emerald glare flared amber upon sighting Kiyoko again, before shifting to a more pink color.

Kiyoko thrust her sword with a flick of her left hand. It rocketed towards Ibaraki, like a dart through the air, wind whirling in a spiral behind it.

_Click!_ Ibaraki held up her right arm, and flicked the katana away like it really were just an oncoming dart.

_Woosh!_ Kiyoko leaned out of the way of it, as it came back at her like a disc of death. _'That— was fast…'_

A maiden ran out in the way, standing between Ibaraki and Kiyoko. "Aa—" She held her arms out, and she her eyes. _"Run! Kiyoko!"_

"No!" Kiyoko held an arm out—

Ibaraki grabbed onto the shorter girl's shoulders.

_RIP— RIP… RII~P!_ She tore the torso down the middle, splitting the young woman straight in half.

Kiyoko's eyes were wide for a moment. _'Damn…'_

Detecting the flare of disappointment on Kiyoko's face, Ibaraki beamed.

"So?" Ibaraki marched closer. "How's it feel?"

'_...I don't think that needs a response—'_

"That your _dear father_ left you for dead, on the battlefield?" Ibaraki clarified. "Left _all these men_ dead?"

'_So that really was where he got off to.'_

The dust was beginning to settle all around them.

'_We've lost about five lower-tier samurai. The elites—...'_

Three were still here. Two were close to Kiyoko, cautiously poised behind here, and the other three stood at Ibaraki's different sides. Each man was constantly pacing, constantly keeping himself ready to move at an instant's notice.

'_Ah.'_ Losing the elites was what would truly make this a grievous battle. _'Well, that, and losing myself.'_

"It doesn't thrill me." Kiyoko almost had to yell, to be heard over the wind. "If that's what you ask of me."

Ibaraki smiled. "You know what thrills _me?"_

Kiyoko had a suspicion. _"...Me?"_

Ibaraki stomped the floor.

_BOOM!_ A geyser of dirt enveloped her.

Kiyoko's form flickered out, as she drifted to a new location. _'If you can't see her, evade.'_ It probably wasn't a foolproof principle, but her instincts told her it was the safest bet.

_KABOOM!_ Where Kiyoko was standing before, Ibaraki had plunged her arm into the floor from above. Amidst the billowing pillar of dust from her impact, she sunk further into the dirt...

"_Rrgh—"_ The elite samurai were tossed away by the sheer ferocity, as if they were caught in a tide. _"Ngha~h!"_

When Kiyoko reappeared, past some maidens who were trying to dial back from the encounter—

_KRACK- BOOM!_ The floor directly before Kiyoko exploded. The loose, sandy soil gave away to Ibaraki's form as she emerged.

"The fact you were _stupid enough ta stay—"_ Ibaraki lashed an arm out to grab her.

_Clack!_ Kiyoko wove her leg up past Ibaraki's arm, and flicked a quick kick against her face. The impact was like her sandal meeting stone.

Ibaraki raised her arms to grab the leg, but Kiyoko was already gone.

_CLINK!_ "Bla— ah…!" Kiyoko had summoned her katana and brought it down on the back of Ibaraki's head, but it bounced off like she'd swung it at a block of steel. It felt so _wrong._

"Really…" Ibaraki slowly turned to face her, while she recoiled. "Didn't they teach ya anything about us oni?"

Kiyoko vanished. Ibaraki slouched slightly.

Now many meters away, Kiyoko surveyed the battlefield. _'...Looks like a bunch of the maidens have escaped. But—'_

An elite samurai appeared next to Kiyoko. "You have to go." He commanded her.

"No— _you_ have to go." She glared at him. "You cannot die here."

"_You_ cannot die here." He turned the topic back around. "Compared to you— we are nothing."

"I will not leave— unless we all leave together." Kiyoko returned.

"And lead her to the village!?" The samurai yelled back, as if it were a secret.

'_If the village meant nothing to her, we'd already be dead, I'm sure. There are enough maidens and samurai there to fell even her, if she got so greedy.'_

"Yes!" Kiyoko suggested just that. "We—"

Ibaraki ran at them.

_BOOM- BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!_ Each of her strides shook the plains around them. Kiyoko nearly lost her footing— and in a near instant, Ibaraki was already there. A hundred meters had been cleared in a thought.

"_How 'bout ya leave—"_ Ibaraki threw a hook at them. _"—in a hundred pieces!?"_

The motion was near-instant, fluid and conveyed unimaginable power.

'_If I evade— the soldier—'_

The elite samurai had raised his blade to guard the blow, getting before Kiyoko.

'_What… what can I do?'_

She generated a barrier before Ibaraki.

_BAM!_ The barrier was deleted by the hook, not even fragments remaining.

_BAM!_ Kiyoko made a tinier barrier behind it, and it didn't mean anything either.

Darting past the elite samurai in that moment, Kiyoko thrust the tip of her katana for Ibaraki's wrist.

_CLINK!_ Her skin was like steel, and Kiyoko didn't know if her force meant anything.

_BOOM!_ The hook met the guarding samurai's blade. Wind erupted in a similar fashion to when Yasuoka countered the ashen oni's attack—

_WHABOOM!_ Then, the samurai went flying. _"Huuaa~!"_

'_He survived!'_ Kiyoko knew he'd at least _live_ from that.

Turning smoothly, Ibaraki gave Kiyoko a huge smile. _'Um—'_

_CLING!_ Kiyoko slid back, after parrying a lightning-fast punch from Ibaraki. _'She's fast—'_

_KRACACK- CLING- KRACK!_ Kiyoko made two barriers that were broken instantly. As Ibaraki walked closer, she threw out jabs so fast and powerful that they shattered the barriers in a blink.

"The _nerve_ of you…" Ibaraki slightly marveled at how much of a risk Kiyoko took, to simply be annoying. "What do you _think_ you're doing?"

Despite the doubt in Kiyoko's mind, she kept backpedalling slowly, glaring Ibaraki down.

'_If only I had that wind technique. If only I had some method to turn her force against her...'_

_Fwap- fwap- fwap._ Kiyoko threw some Hakurei talismans at her.

_FWASH- FWAZAZAP- FAZAP!_ They crackled wildly, trying to punish Ibaraki, as she tore them off plainly. "You're hardly even _afraid._ One sudden movement from me— one you can't read— and you'll be _dead,_ you know? Awful risky game, for someone with _pussy blood_ like yours."

"I— I know." Kiyoko glared back at her. "But—..."

She took a deep breath. "I'll never become the most powerful— if I can't even assure those who contribute to the clan survive."

She had a selfish reason for saving the people here herself, but…

"If I'm to die here," Kiyoko cast doubt out of her mind, "it will be _to you,_ in battle, because you were stronger. Not because my people deceived me. Not because my dreams were broken by our human society."

"I'll have died in pursuit of my dream." Kiyoko smiled. "And yet, my spirit will live on, still willing. My resolve will hold on, even with death.

"It is a greater fate, than if I were sold into servitude, or usurped, or made into the pet of my people. Then my dream would be dead before I was… and I'd rather kill myself before resigning to such a fate."

Kiyoko poised her blade like her father, and glared Ibaraki down. "Come on, then! Kill me!"

Stillness.

The wind blew.

Then, Ibaraki smiled.

It'd be cruel to kill Kiyoko here, yes. But, the way she put it, she feared living more than she feared death. Though her resolve to live was strong, her willingness to take her resolve into death was even stronger.

Ibaraki wasn't sure what to _do,_ from here.

Naturally, the law of irony decided the course of fate.

"Hmm." Ibaraki gave it one last consideration. "Maybe later."

Kiyoko blinked.

"The strength you show right now…" Ibaraki shook her head. "I'll admit. I'm interested in what's gonna happen to you. Y'might be enough of a pussy to deserve bein' offed even more later… but I'd like ta think you'll _know_. You'll _know_, when yer older, just how much of a _pussy_ you are, human an' everything."

"I want'cha to see how shitty and worthless your life really is. _Then_ I'll kill you."

Ibaraki stepped closer. Kiyoko kept her guard up, katana held up.

"What's it you fear?" Ibaraki asked. "Powerlessness? Nnh, hehehe…"

Ibaraki held her arms out. "But that's the very _nature_ of being human! Strength in numbers, am I right!?

"The feeling of _unfulfillment._ All the restrictions of yer pussy-ass society shit. Y'live a hundred years, used and abused by people even _weaker than you,_ y'get dragged down to their level, bred, and—... they do worse than kill ya. They _take from you_ and give to _themselves."_

Beaming, Ibaraki folded her arms. "I wanna see you in ten years. Twenty years. Thirty years. Whenever. I wanna see you become a wife, drop your sword, and bend over to your own, punchable people.

"Hell, if you have a fun enough time with it, I might not even _kill ya._ Some stories are best left as-is, aren't they?"

Kiyoko beheld her words and her judgment.

'_...She wants to see me sink from the way our society is. She knows who I am, I'm sure. She spoke of my blood earlier.'_

"Then... you think I'm strong now?" Kiyoko had to ask.

Ibaraki beamed. "Heh? Yeah, sure. You're strong-willed. It's yer only redeeming quality. If I see you again, an' you've lost that look in yer eye… hell, if I see you again _period,_ I'll pro'lly kill you without a second thought."

Her eyes narrowed, her smile widening. "Bu' personally, 'tween you and me, _I hope you do._ You humans have a knack for fuckin' everthing up. I want to see you at yer damn lowest. _Then_ I can kill you, an' everyone who's ever came before you.

"I can't kill you now, not knowin' how _funny_ or _satisfying_ or _however_ it'll be to see you an' kill you later."

...Kiyoko had her suspicions towards the youkai's logic.

'_Strange woman. She wishes to see me pushed down by my own people. She considers that a high greater than killing me and eating me right here.'_

'_Those who've died here… their families will mourn. The impact of their deaths on a mission with us, it won't be easy for them.'_

"Go home." Noticing the human's wandering thoughts, Ibaraki commanded Kiyoko. "Take your toy soldiers wit'cha. When you're a grown-up, it ain't gonna matter what god you pray ta."

"If you aren't even half the monster I am, I'll kill ya. When you go back home… I dunno _what_ ya should do. Either give the hell up, or try yer damn hardest. Either way, you'll find out how pointless your life truly is."

With that, Ibaraki gave Kiyoko a wave. "Human bitch. Go get laid. Pro'lly gonna need all the _descendents_ possible ta level with how many of you I'm gonna _eat."_

With that, Ibaraki turned away to casually walk off.

'_How mean-spirited.'_ Kiyoko allowed herself a small smile after the oni walked off. _'Ibaraki… she lives up to the fables. Both of her, and her ancestor.'_

She heard Ibaraki mutter as she sauntered off. "More kids, more to eat. All you can eat—... hmm." It seemed like she was thinking of things to say, or things she wished she added on, as she left. "Family buffet? Nnghk—..." She seemed to cringe at her own pun.

'_Truly fitting of the title 'Demon in Pink'.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Meanwhile, Milla had everything prepared for her trip to the mountains.

'_Ghostiness, check! Pack a' snacks, check! Staff, check!'_

'_Think I'm all ready ta go, ze!'_

She had sent herself to rest inside an abandoned house along the border of the Hakurei village. _'...An' the mountain's a long-ass way from there. This is the culmination of a couple innovations that let me actually go kinda far away from where I start!'_

'_And, y'know, climbing a mountain's kinda gotta take something consistent. Havin' sex with the boy toy for a all-around buff to things is nice and all, but even with potions to help, that kinda thing is like… it's finite. I kinda like to stop and smell the roses, so uh, I had ta come up with some ideas to make the whole situation less uh… less limited.'_

This said, despite her unneeded readiness check— it wasn't like her Ikiryou needed either nutrients or necessities, nor could she keep this up for more than some hours— she was already some distance across the battlefield.

More specifically, Milla was two-thirds across the distilled dirt abyss between the Hakurei village and the rumbling Youkai Mountain.

'_This place is pretty crazy, lemme tell ya! Sneakin' past Hakurei and oni's pretty easy, though. Oni can't hit me, and the Hakurei're too busy with the oni. Other youkai are just whatever.'_

Despite the plain being so wide, it felt alive with the amount of unending clashing that went on. It was an all-out free-for-all between the oni, tengu, Hakurei and random arbitrarily violent youkai.

'_Not that you see the tengu here a lot. Tengu strategize like the Hakurei, except they're way way tougher. Only downside's that they don't got holy tools, so they gotta take the oni head-on, and everything sorta balances out 'cause of it.'_

There weren't any tengu here today. There were about six oni, and a Hakurei for each, endlessly kiting them around in circles.

'_What a trip. Fightin' big youkai is weird.'_

Onibi— the random spirit wisps— drifted along the borders of this battlefield, even during the day.

_Splash._ As Milla proceeded past a cloud of the strange spirit-fire, she doused it with water before they could rush her down. _'Good.'_

Soon, she'd reach the woods at the foot of Youkai Mountain. _'I've always been curious what the actual fuck's goin' on out here. An' since I can't die as a livin' spirit, I can just walk off into everything!'_

_BOOM- BOOM- BOOM!_ Somewhere nearby, the repeated three-orb volley of giga-proportioned yin-yangs touched down, creating a huge plume of dust that spanned most of the battlefield.

'_Oh- shit!'_ Milla jumped from the noise and the vibrations. _'Wh- what the fuck's even the point a' that!? Why're we just shootin' shit at nothing!? Jeez…'_

The day was late. Soon, the grey sky would give away to airy blue and black.

'_This field, though…'_

Feeling greedy, Milla moved to cross the deep midst of the battlefield plain. _'The soil's like sand, and the air reeks of earth.'_

Passing by idle, flashy battles of swords, fists and magic, Milla came to the clearing's left side.

'_Uuh. Let's—... huh.'_

As she paused here, however, she found something strange some distance from the neutral woods on the clearing's edge.

There was an all-but-nude, ash-skinned oni woman knelt down here, bound to the floor. She seemed to have closed her eyes, and was now resting.

'_Grey skin, huh…'_

Unfearing, Milla waltzed right up to her. "Hey, smokey. You awake?"

...Slowly, the oni blinked her eyes open.

'_Just, lettin' it all hang out, huh.'_ The oni only wore a loincloth, her well-endowed chest exposed to the evening air. _'I mean, not like clothes help oni, I guess. That's some caveman shit, though...'_

"Human…?" The oni unsurely stated.

Milla shook her head. "Nah. I'mma _ghost!"_ She flared her arms out for effect. "The hell're _you?"_

The oni woman seemed to consider this turn of events mundane. After pulling some against the gold-white-red chains that bound her, she met Milla's gaze. "Oni."

'_Yeah, figured.'_

"Actually, come ta think of it," Milla flared her own green hair out. "What human's got _green hair?"_

The oni woman snorted. "You haven't dealt with the Hakurei, have you? I wouldn't put a trick like that past them. Especially after what happened."

...Milla nodded. Looking around, she noticed body parts, bones and abandoned armaments lying around, as well as ruined chains and armor.

"Yeah, I guess I could see that." Milla slightly marveled at the sheer amount of gore, once she focused on it.

'_Only just now noticin' it… the human body's got less blood in it than I thought. Or I guess, flows less well. But, uhm…'_ Staring at open, exposed and ripped flesh and organ disturbed her on an instinctual level.

Her gaze centered on a pile of broken limbs. The clothes resembled that of a plain Hakurei shrine maiden, but most of the white was now stained brown-black, and the head was likely buried somewhere amidst the bones and pink matter.

'_Let's not stare at that too long.'_ She wouldn't admit it, but looking at all of this death uneased her some. _'Damn, what a battle this must've been. An' all they did was leave this one oni fuckin' bound, and not even scratched? Shi~t.'_

"How 'bout I get them chains off you?" Milla proposed idly.

"Hah?" The oni woman gained an easy smile. "These chains? Oh, gimme a day, I'll have them off. Like _you'd_ be able to snap them. Ghosts ain't known for their muscle mass, sweetie."

"Aah, lemme look 'em over." Milla was going to check anyway.

"Tell you what," the oni grinned. "You undo these chains, an' I'll buy ya a drink. If ghosts _can _drink, that is."

...Milla pursed her lips. She couldn't really afford alcohol most times, nor did she really think of it. "This ghost can!" It wouldn't hurt to try, she supposed.

'_Ikiryou can do a lotta natural processes. Hell— without the right focus, I'd actually be tangible like this almost all the time. It's never really mattered, 'cause when I fight Hakurei, their holy shit doesn't care if yer a man or a ghost. Clocks ya over the head regardless.'_

Kneeling down, Milla touched a chain—

_KRAZAP!_ _"Wo- yeeow!"_ She flailed her hand around, and stuck it in her mouth. "Mmgh…!"

"Pft—..." The oni woman grinned again.

'_This shit's heavy duty! Just one touch, and it kicked my ass! Guess it'd hafta be some serious power to keep an oni held down, an' fer a day at that…'_

'_Uuh. Anyway, let's try…'_

She had two options. One was to attempt to disenchant the chains altogether— or effectively _undo_ the blessing— and the other would be to just try and rend them with a laser or something.

'_Gonna try the laser first.'_ It was the easier option.

_VRRR._ Her crescent staff glowed neon red, as she shot a line down at the chain—

'_Oh— shit—'_

She dropped down onto her butt. The laser reflected off the chain and almost gave her a haircut. "Ho— holy crap…!"

"Are ya _sure_ you know what you're doing?" The oni woman questioned her knowledge…

...Milla gave a growing smile back. "Ye— crystal. As crystal. Aah…"

'_Guess we're doin' this the hard way.'_

She figured it would be like dispelling a Hakurei talisman, but ten times as tedious and way more complicated.

Closing her eyes, she let go of her staff, and held both hands just before the chain's metal. When they got close, some of the holy began to crackle onto her hands like miniature fireworks.

'_An' now… to focus.'_

Although, unlike what she expected, there wasn't a remarkable amount of encryption. _'Every chain… it's kinda like a circuit. Each chain powers one another, and individually they're all damn rigid 'cause of it. But… if you actually break just one…'_

When she thought about it, that was pretty much just how chains worked normally, except better. _'I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!'_

'_So… if I fuck with the holy balance of this one chain, maybe use heat and cold to break it the sciencey way, might be able to do this fer all of 'em…'_

After she wiggled and prodded the vile holy from one chain ring—

_CHINK._ The oni pulled her own leg some, and the chain broke immediately.

'_Wow.'_ Milla jerked her head back. _'Shit. Precarious situation, huh.'_

With her legs free, the ashen oni stood, and raised a leg. She slipped her foot into the chains that bound her wrists—

_CRACK!_ Gold light shot off the chains in fragments, as the extra weight demolished the chain cuff.

Reaching down, she clasped the chain on her other leg—

_CRACK- KRACK!_ Then, with a few tugs and pulls, it broke too.

"Mmh…" Standing fully, she stretched, giving Milla an eyeful. "Feels good ta _move_ again."

...Milla met her eyes after a moment or two.

"Thanks." The oni gave her a nod. "...What? Speechless?"

She was one or two heads taller than Milla. "Uuh. You're _tall."_

"You're short." Looking towards the mountain, the oni beckoned Milla. "Nnh. No use stickin' 'round here, is there. Buncha Hakurei all killed my buzz earlier."

"Guess not." Milla moved to follow her. "We goin' up the mountain?"

The oni snorted. "...Ya new 'round here? We all live up the mountain."

"Ah, yeah." Milla supposed that _would_ be the case. "Alright. We just uh, goin' for drinks now?"

"Yup."

'_How prompt. S'that simple, is it. ...For some reason, I got less pretenses approachin' an oni than I am people in the village. We've already got a simple understanding; I'm a ghost, she's an oni, no fightin' can happen so like… neither of us even bother.'_

"The hell's yer name?" Milla wondered.

"Naka."

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Milla was thankful she could float around. There was no _easy_ way up the mountain, and no trails; none that survived the fighting and anger of the oni.

'_Fucky how the Hakurei call their teleporting 'floating'. I mean, their position relative to where they actually are floats around— but like… s'a bit disingenuous. It's basically teleporting!'_

"_Huhp!"_ Naka heaved, and leapt.

_BOOM!_ The ground meters below Milla exploded out some, sandy dirt splashing out as Naka bound stories up the mountain in one leap.

_BAM!_ Her landing was hard, her legs smashing the top of a huge, embedded rock she landed on. _'Didn't know humanoid bodies could safely make these kinda noises. Fer a definition of safe!'_

Up here, Naka slowly panned to Milla as she caught up… "Do you _actually_ hafta sit on that staff thing ta fly?"

Milla snorted, and shook her head. "Aah, nah." She had been sitting on her staff like it were a broom, pretending to fulfill the stereotype in her head. "Force a' habit…"

She turned around, and gazed off the side of the mountain.

Even just some distance up and out of the woods, she could see the upper floors of the Hakurei Castle level with herself, and she could gaze over many of the rooftops.

'_Makes the whole place look so damn tiny. Feels weird, lookin' down on it all from a distance. S'gonna seem like an ant hill when I'm higher up. Really puts shit in perspective.'_

When Milla turned back around.

_BOOM!_ Naka leapt, rock exploding into Milla's face. _'Aw— shit!'_

...After she finished twirling around in vague disorientation, Milla shook her head and floated up to rejoin with her.

The trees all along the mountainside were, in simple terms, bruised and battered. Tilted, encumbered, half-dead and choked by the badland soil, cast onto it from the battered plain below as well as kicked up from inside the mountain itself.

_boom._ An echoing rumble reverberated around the mountain, made by force unknown.

_fwish._ A small tree fell over, slain by the force, after some months of a sad existence, barely achieving a meter or two in height.

'_Wow.'_ Something about the visual amazed Milla. _'They really turned this place into hell.'_

Autumn colors were common on the trees— or, no, Milla disagreed with that descriptor. Trees up here had straw-yellow leaves, and the grass was patchy, struggling to grow amidst the constantly changing, rumbling earth.

'_These ain't autumn colors. Autumn's just death of the leaves, but the tree goes dormant and lives on. These are dead trees that ain't comin' back. Probably not good for somethin' or another, but since the oni have been up here awhile, we may or may not be seein' the tail-end of a long fight between them and the ecosystem up here.'_

She may've called it a fight, but it was more like the nature's struggle to survive the oni's inadvertently destructive ways. _'To them, these trees would be like what ant hills and sand dunes are to us on the beach. Easily cast aside by anything that matters— which, to them, is a far higher threshold than it is for us.'_

"...I'd call ya slow for a ghost," Naka's deep but informal voice felt like it'd vibrate through Milla's own chest, "but I don't really know anything 'bout _ghosts."_

Milla snorted. "Aah. Just never _been up_ this way before. The way all the trees're dead is kinda something."

"Oh, that!" Naka grinned some. "Well… that's gonna happen. Trees are kinda fragile."

'_Trees… are kinda fragile, huh.'_ Milla wasn't sure if she agreed.

"Anyway, the bar ain't too far away." Naka ran forward right after she spoke—

_BAM!_ She snapped into a fancy, twisty jump up a wall of jagged and uneven rocks. Gravel fell from them, jostled by the motion.

_BOOM!_ Her landing was explosive too—

_Krack- thump- thunk- thumpump!_ The rock wall began to shatter, a small avalanche rolling down towards Milla.

She simply floated over it, moving to join Naka. _'So damn powerful. I wonder how many of them there are. Between the higher up trees and the weird building-like structures up here, an' the height, s'hard to get a good visual of how big this… oni village place actually is.'_

"Oh!" Naka pointed ahead. "Ri' there!"

'_Right where?'_ Milla couldn't see up the mountain well, in the grey.

Naka climbed up some rocks without fear, like it were as natural as walking.

'_Watchin' her climb the rocks is a fuckin' sight.'_ Since Naka was essentially naked aside from her loincloth, watching her climb rocks was a visual Milla hadn't been guarded for.

'_Humanoid bodies really are monkey-like, damn.'_

Milla plainly cruised behind Naka atop her staff, until a hundred or so meters up a path that could barely be called a trail.

Built into jagged mountainside, thinly veiled with brush best defined as sticks, there was a sizable 'tavern'. It was made of stone, all freshly cut and masoned— but not in an orderly way.

'_Looks like they took one big square a' stone and divided it up. An' despite all that effort, it— still— looks ugly. Like—... like they took a buncha rocks and stacked 'em together!'_

Naka had a more sedate look on her face. "Y'been here before? They call it the _Bedrock Inn._ Nnn…"

Milla snorted at her grin. "Oh? Why's that?"

Naka's building smugness was palpable. "...'Cause a lotta beds rock there, if ya know what I'm sayin'!"

'_I see she picked option B. Better than sayin' it's made outta bedrock… 'cause it probably actually is.'_

"C'mon, I'll buy ya a drink."

Milla took pause. "...Youkai use _money?"_

Naka snorted. "Uuh? Well, pro'lly not quite like the _humans_ do. All our gold comes from the villages we've raided."

'_Hol' up… I'd heard about this before, but I wanna set it straight now.'_

"You guys raid villages?" Milla wondered.

Naka gave Milla a weird look. "You musta died young, huh? Yea~h. Half the time, the humans start it, an' they sure as hell can't end it. Y'know— at this point, I really can't even count how many times it's happened, an' I super forget whose fault it was each time…"

She scratched the back of her head, and her long black hair shook about. "Once we're done 'ere, how 'bout I show you the mountaintop? Yer gonna _wanna_ see the fightin' goin' on up there!"

'_Am I? ...Well, kinda, yeah, actually.'_

They were probably only halfway up the mountain, and already they were seeing forms of oni settlement. _'Time to see what this bar… inn… thing's all about.'_

Naka gladly pressed ahead, and pushed open some slanted, western-style saloon doors, crudely affixed to a crappy wood frame that seemed to barely exist anymore. _'It's just two poles, now… held in place wit' fuckin' mini-boulders.'_

Browsing in behind her, Milla beheld the 'bar'.

It had the tables, the back counter, and it sure as hell had the booze. _'Holy fuck.'_ It absolutely _reeked_ of alcohol. Milla felt drunk just stepping foot in there. _'Dude…'_

Axes, swords of various shapes, bent katanas, kanabo, clubs, and misshapen disasters of metalworking lined a wall nearby. In a corner, there was a pile of armor— all likely stolen, as the oni had no use for them.

There was a murmur of loud voices, of both oni men and women. Milla's gaze immediately centered on a short-haired, red-skinned woman. "An' then I bent tha' tengu bitch over, an'—"

_Splash! _Nearby, an oni got splashed with some kind of liquid from afar. _"Oohp!_ Ah, shit… wh— where'd that even—"

"No one threw _booze,_ did they?"

"Pfft. Aah…" The man licked his arm. "...No?"

"Aarh…"

_CRUNCH!_ At one table, an oni crushed a whole wood mug against his head, shattering it into pieces. It was no fancy mug, either; being just an angular tub of wood boards nailed together, just composed enough to hold liquid without spillage.

Naka moved to pull on Milla's arm, except her hand went right through. "Aah…" Grinning, she beckoned Milla to follow. "C'mon, ya…"

As they browsed through the bar, they passed by packed tables.

"One a' them Hakurei boys ga'e me a little doohickey…" A one-horned man held up what looked like a feather duster, but made of Hakurei talismans.

"Wh— what tha' fuck…"

"Awh? Fuck. Best I got off tha' runners was their sword. Left me alone right quick afta' that."

Naka passed a woman with long, crimson hair—

The woman tried to slap her ass, but Naka got her wrist. "Aawh— _no_ ya don't…!"

The crimson-haired woman beamed back at her. "An' what the fuck were _you_ off doin'?"

"Chasin' Hakurei." Naka returned. "I got fuckin' _jumped._ Decided captain fuckface oughta show his face t'day— oh!" Then, her eyes flared in excitement. "I saw _Ibaraki_ down in the dirt!"

"...If tha's a lie, issa bad one." The crimson-haired woman gave her a woozy grin in return. "You saw dickhead in charge _and _Ibaraki in the same damn place?"

Naka snorted. "Fer a split second, yeah. Fuckboy got right outta there. Left _his daughter_ ta fight Ibaraki."

"Aah— yeah!" A guy at an adjacent but very near table held up a mug in confirmation. "I saw! Was out chasin' a sammy not a couple hundre' paces down!"

"Hah? Daughter…?" The crimson-haired oni smiled wider. "So she dead?"

Naka shook her head. "I uh, dunno. Ibaraki let her an' whatever was left of her goonies walk away. They said some shit— but I was too busy fuckin' around, and they got too far. Ibaraki pro'lly made 'er eat 'er pet cat later or somethin', I dunno— I ain't 'er fuckin' fanclub."

...Plainly, a blue-skinned man twisted around, and swung a hand for Naka's ass—

Twisting herself, she now held his wrist _and_ the crimson-haired woman's wrist. "Y'gonna _drown_ in tha' fuckin' mug, pal—"

"_Hey, hey."_ The barkeep spoke up. "You fuckos keep tha' shit up— I'll chuck ya all right off the damn mountain! Drop the _roof_ on ya!"

"Aah. Fine." Letting their wrist's go, Naka quickly browsed ahead. "C'mon, uh…" She gave Milla a stare for some seconds. "Windbag. Yeah."

"S'Milla. _Mill—"_ Then, Milla thought better. She coughed a little. "Nngh—... _Mima._ Name's Mima."

"Ah, Mittens." Naka grinned. "A'right, Kittens."

...As Milla squeezed between the two tables like she did, the man tried to squeeze her ass.

His hand passed right through. _'Pfft…'_

He snorted, and slouched, as if he were the victim of a particularly striking practical joke. The other men and women at his table chuckled.

"Man, some guys jus' can't get a break, ah…"

"S'what captain grabass gets! S'a reason you choose yer asses carefully!"

"...I mean, it'd be a fight either way, wouldn't it?"

"You grab _Hoshiguma's_ ass an' tell me how that went."

"A'right, a'right…"

Eying the pile of armor, and the weapons on the wall, Milla came closer to Naka. "Yo— thought ya said this place's a bar. What's wit' the armory?"

Naka took pause, before grinning. "Aaoh. Right— Yukikazu here's a collector a' sorts. But, since we're one a' the most forward bars 'ere, people drop by and forget their weapons, or nick a couple a whole bunch. S'kinda an armory, I guess. Not tha' anyone gives a shit 'bout _armor."_ She eyed the pile of abandoned, somewhat damaged armor herself.

'_...So, people just— constantly forget weapons here, but also steal them, so the dude just has an ever-changing wall of stupid bullshit.'_

'_Y'know, that's a huge contrast to how the Hakurei do border fortification. They got this whole procedure— wit' the fake house fronts, and the samurai stations, an' the vantage points an' formations an' all that shit.'_

'_The oni? Aah, s'just some fuckoff bar made of slabs a' rock with a pile of pointy objects and big clubs inside. An' a lo~tta really drunk oni.'_

Naka sat at one of the front stools. They were notably made of shiny, even-cut cylinders of some kind of mint-tinted metal, rather than wood.

'_Just, raw metal for seats. This is—...'_ Milla realized what she was sitting on, when she sat down next to Naka. _'It's mythril! They're usin' fuckin' mythril deposits as seats!'_

"Um." When the bald barkeep stood before them, Milla spoke up first. "Why're we sittin' on _mythril."_

He furrowed his brows. "Whah…?" Then, he realized what she meant. "Oh, right! Aeh. Looked fancy enough fer seats. S'plenty tough, too."

'_Looked fancy enough for seats, huh. If I brought one of these seats back home, I'd be a fuckin' aristocrat. Instantly. Hand it off to a Hakurei, get a seat in the royal council! What the fuck's all this mythril doin' lyin' around up here…!?'_

Milla sized up his form. _'...Looks like formal attire in oni-land is a pair a' short-ass pants. Not that the other dudes aren't wearin' similarly crappy outfits. Girls just let their chests hang out, and— I mean, there's a couple a' naked dudes, but most got fundoshi an' shit that actually works.'_

'_There's a couple in just, really loose-looking pants. Until I'm proven wrong, I'm gonna consider that their equivalent of a suit!'_

"What'll it be?" The barkeep asked.

_Clink._ Naka planted random yen coins down on the counter. _'Uuh. That's like, a hundred and forty somethin' yen. Weird number.'_

"Two big ones!" Naka grinned at Milla. "Y'can hold yer alcohol, right? If, uh, y'can actually _drink at all_, that is."

He took the random coins, and moved to get some booze.

...Milla had a brow raised. "How much's a _drink_ cost here?"

"Cost?" Naka took pause. "Ah. Some coins, I guess. Keep here likes 'em. I heard yen's a good snack, but I 'unno…"

'_Did she just call yen a freakin' snack.'_

After some moments of Milla acclimating to the beer-flavored air, the barkeep was back with the actual booze.

_Thunk, thunk._ Two huge wooden mugs were planted down, hard enough to make the counter shake. _'Looks like they were made from a bread box folded into a cup-shape.'_

"...What kind's this?" Milla wasn't sure if she expected an answer.

"Aah…" The barkeep had to think about it. "It's the strong kind. 'Bit cheap, yeah, bu' it tastes good."

'_The strong kind, huh.'_

Naka had a smug look, her gaze easy again. "You'd think ya'd be more familiar, a' this point."

He waved it off. "Nngh. S'not like it _matters._ Beer's beer, right?"

"Tru~e."

'_Where do they get it from, if money's, uh… just a snack? Maybe they run their own breweries, or somethin'. Don't imagine it'd be too hard, but with the lack 'a plants, I dunno.'_

...Reluctantly, Milla grabbed onto her wood mug.

_shoof._ She slid it to her side of the counter. _'Oh, fuck, it's heavy.'_

The mug was larger than she thought. It was more like a bucket, and she wasn't _quite_ sure how she was supposed to drink from its thick ridges. _'Glad I'm a spirit, or the splinters would be an ass.'_

'_I mean, they're still gonna be an ass, but whatever.'_

Naka expectantly took in Milla's face. Milla stared back at her, before grinning at the oddly satisfied way Naka smiled.

"Drink up, yeah?" Naka insisted. "Wanna see how ya handle yer _booze."_

Milla flicked her gaze up. _'Well… fine.'_

Milla held up the huge, wood mug with both hands. "...How the fuck do ya _drink_ outta this."

Naka held up her own mug. "Mmm— mmh…"

Beer spilled down her neck and chest, coming from her lips that only vaguely managed to catch the rigid side of the angular mug correctly. To sip from the corners would be actually worse too, and not quite possible either.

Even so, the straight edges of the mug were too thick for lips to comfortably fit around. _'Whelp. This is gonna be shit.'_

Tilting her head back, she began to spill the beer all over her face in an attempt to drink it.

"Mmghk—" It burned. _"Hkgh- mnh!? Mmhm!"_ Boy, did it burn.

'_Oh god—'_

"Ha— aah…!" She sat the mug down, her face stained with foamy beer, her neon blue dress now marked by a line of stains. _"Fhuck…!"_

"Ooh!" Naka beamed. "How's it taste!? _Can_ a ghost taste!?" Then, she looked ten times as snug, hunching down until her chin almost touched the counter. "You feelin' _buzzed_, babe?"

"Aa—" Milla's throat was on fire. _"Kaugh— kuh… _fa— fhak…"

'_God— that's— fuck…'_ It hurt so damn bad. Eventually, the pain faded, but… _'Is that what I've been missin'!? Fuck! It—... it can't be. It can't be that painful. Maybe there's just—... somethin' I'm mussin'. They put bone hurtin' juice in the drink, yeah. That's it.'_

"It—" Then, Milla felt the headache. "Aa—... wh— what the—"

_Thunk._ Her head hit the counter, and she pulled it back up. "Oh- fhuck… fhu~ck…"

"He— hahaha~!" Naka laughed her ass off. "Fuck _yeah!_ Ghost buzz!"

Random oni around the bar saluted without context. _"Ghost buzz!"_

'_Wh- whaht a fhackin' circus.'_ Milla felt dull. _'Even- dhuller tha' ushe…'_

"Aah…" Naka grinned. "Awwh, I gots an idea. Hey, mini. Make yer face tangible real quick."

"Wh- whahy?" Milla's face was uneven. "Ku- kaugh- kuaf…"

"I got somethin' that'll help tha' pain." Naka looked suspiciously pleasant. "An' it ain't a knuckle sandwich. Trust me."

...Milla exhaled, her breath on fire. "Fa— fine, jus' do somethin'..."

"Mmm…" Naka tilted her head back, taking on a mouthful of beer from her mug, some of the drink spilling down her own bare, ashen chest.

Then, she wrapped an arm around Milla's back, and forced her head closer to herself. _"Wh— aa—"_

Naka smashed her lips against Milla's, taking care not to press too hard, as if Milla were made of glass.

"Mmh—" Milla blinked, her mouth accidentally open from trying to exclaim.

Naka's tongue shot in, mixed with the raw beer, flooding Milla's mouth. _"Mmgh— kh— nnh—"_

"Mmh- mhmhm!"Naka giggled victoriously into Milla's mouth, as she felt Milla swallow the beer.

'_Dh—... dahmn— iih…'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

_thump._ Milla drunkenly floated around the uneven, traveler-unfriendly bizzaro architecture of the oni's whatever-this-settlement-would-be-called. Occasionally she met a wall, or the flooring, or something similar.

'_Th— tha' buildin's— they's big— an' there's shit an' blocks— an— aa—'_

Milla was too drunk to process her surroundings in words. She meant to explain and think over the terrain's harshness.

Paths would be cut off by angular, story-high stone walls, and would continue atop said walls. Only oni with significant jumping height could traverse the 'village' easily.

'_Bhuildin' entran— enter—... tha' way inta houses— it's uhh…'_

Milla probably should stop trying. Building entrances were sometimes positioned stories up, or after one or two meter inclines. The only way up them was either with flight, or by jumping.

'_Whoo— aah.'_ ...The whole place was inaccessible to most people because of this. The roads were so angular and regimented that only oni could find it anywhere near convenient to travel.

"_Hup!"_ Naka leapt up ten meters, to the next 'step' up the mountainside village, or city, depending on how one saw it. Up here, the roads were so enduringly designed, that oni could leap and bound around on them without fear of exploding the floor or launching terrain.

'_Tha'... oo— ookay, I gho' thish. So like— tha' blocks… the city's made uppa big fuckin' blocks inserted deep in tha' mount. Each 'step' a' the road's actually like… a tiered step fer buildings ta be built on to. Ashhole design'sh jus' ta fuck wi' people… er, no, s'just the way it is, an' oni deal wi- it.'_

From above, the city would seem like a misshapen circle of arched pieces, some dipping stories up and below each other. Like this, the city's foundation resisted great force and erosion with ease. The only price to pay for its construction was a monolithic effort of masonry and labor, possible in a reasonable timeframe only by oni hands.

'_S'actually… real cool.'_

_Wham!_ As they progressed, Milla hovered straight into one of the abrupt, completely vertical ascents in the road. "Whgh— _ow…"_

Naka snorted. "Fly much?"

"..._Nho."_ Milla gave a lopsided but firm look back. "Ahkshually…"

She held up a hand. "Uum. So— you guys goht anything fer… druhnknessh?"

Naka pursed her lips, and scratched one of her tits. "Hmm. Well, _yeah,_ actually. Lotta people're surprised when they find out. 'Cause, they figure we're just _always drunk,_ which is… mostly true, but fer a lot of us, bein' a little _lighter_ on the buzz helps sometimes. But, we don't like it, 'cause it's got some drawbacks."

Milla's dull curiosity was piqued. "Aah. Li'— like whah? Whah ish ih'?"

"...So, there's a _few_ ways." Naka supplied. "Usual way a' soberin' up's a _whole lotta fightin'._ Since you can't do that— bein' already dead and all— would pro'lly help if you like…"

"_Hup!"_ Suddenly, Naka ascended to the next huge square step, twenty meters up.

'_Oough…'_ Milla mentally groaned, drifting up after her with some struggle…

Naka was waiting for her. "We _got_ this brew a' sorts, sobers ya up right damn quick, but the hangover comes right away. Pretty sure it's worse than a normal hangover. An' normally, us oni don't care too hard 'bout hangovers… but issa li'l random, y'know?"

'_I—... I 'unno, I might wanna drink it anyway…'_ Milla felt like she was underwater.

"We can go get some, if you're too baby ta sit out yer buzz."

"Yeah—" Milla nodded. "Kinda—... kinda whanna _'member today,_ yeah?"

'_I heard—... ghettin' dhrunk—... oh, fuck it.'_ Milla gave up on thinking.

"Nn— heheh. Fair 'nuff."

Naka looked around; she'd have to spot a place which performed alchemy. Considering the disorganized structure of the town, they'd just have to wander until one came up.

A thought popped into her head. "Oh, yeah! There's a chance the place might not even _do _that sorta thing, when we find it!"

'_Nngh…'_

With that, Milla had nothing to focus on but following Naka, and the veritable obstacle course that was the oni settlement's foundation and roads.

_KABOOM!_ Up here, she'd learned what the rumbling heard all down the mountainside was. _'Why's shit always explodin'!?'_

_BOOM- BAM!_ Two oni were fighting to the right, when Milla and Naka got up the next step. A big woman smashed a bigger man into the wall with a hook to his cheek, shattering stone and sending damage spiderwebbing up the brutally minimalistic stone building.

'_Oh. Sho— all thehm crahcks— they ain't the wind…'_

The man was hooked by her again, stumbling back. "Hrr—" He looked up at her—

_BOOM!_ She threw a kick, and her bare foot met his gut, embedding him in the big stone wall that was one of the 'vertical parts' of the road.

"_Fhuck— rghn—"_ He growled, reaching forward—

He got her by the shoulders, and fell back, throwing her over himself as he fell—

_KRABOOM- BOOM!_ She was embedded waist-up inside the wall. _"Mmh- mmgh!"_ Muffled yells came from inside, as she kicked her legs around.

_KRACKACKROOM!_ Then, with her arms and knees, she thrust herself out, limbs chewing through rock—

_BAM!_ She fell into the guy's back as he stood, and the motion made him flop forward onto his stomach. _"Ough! _He— hahah!"

'_What the fuck.'_ Milla wasn't sure _what_ she was watching. _'This— beer… sh'— shih's shtrong…'_

Naka continued like she hadn't noticed the fighting. Milla wasn't sure if that was normal, or if she was so drunk everything became infinitely more exciting.

The roads were lined with blocks and broken masonry. Wheelbarrows of huge bricks sat around, and the streets only sparsely had oni just wandering around.

'_Either 'cuz thehy uh… have somewhere else ta be— or there'sh less of 'em than the size of this place might let ya believe.'_

She wasn't sure which, and at the moment, she was too drunk to even approach the thought again. _'Everythin's spinnin'...'_

Eventually, they came to a four-way crossroads amidst the tall, five story high oni buildings. _'Such damn tall bhuildings.'_

Naka paused, searching the fronts of the tall, nearly windowless stone rectangles. _'Windows seem ta only be a thing at random… an' they don't bother wit' glass so much; a lot of 'em are open-air.'_

"Ah. Ri~ght _here."_ Naka began to march for a dirty-looking, doorless opening. "I knew a guy here. C'mon, uh…"

Milla was quite literally spinning around in place, leaving herself upside-down in some moments, and rightside up in others.

"Follow me, fluff-head." Naka passed the somewhat surrealistic and adorable visual off as a ghost problem.

'_Fluff-head…?'_ Milla's brows curled up. _'I'm— noht fluffy.'_

Before they stepped inside, Naka paused, and Milla bumped into her. "Wh— nnh…"

She leaned over, giving Milla a low look. "I'd take ya somewhere we could fuck around— but I dunno if a ghost can, y'know, have _sex._ In a way that matters, I mean."

"...Whah?" Milla hardly processed the idea.

"Dudes've been givin' you _stares,_ girl." Naka grinned. "You're such a _li'l thing._ An' 'tween you and me, dickin' things that look human is... kind of a common fetish."

She leaned even closer, biting the bottom of her own lip. "You like _big dicks?"_

"Aa—" Milla tilted her head back, and held up a hand. "Can—... can thish— wait? 'Till I'm _sober?"_

Naka stood back, and turned for the door again. "Aah. Well, sure… not like yer gonna wanna _do it_ while sober, honestly…"

Her displeased muttering fell on deaf ears, as Milla held her own head again. _'God— I fheel like— crahp.'_

Then, they were inside.

The room in here was unfurnished, save for some truly decadent couches, and a table that stood with two legs, its bad side propped up on a big rock instead.

A well-muscled but somewhat thin man sat in here, downing booze from a big bottle. "Mmgh— mmh—"

Naka held out her arms, her breasts free to the air. "He~y, Suketame~!"

Lowering the bottle, Milla could see the two stubby horns in his forehead. "Aah…" He beamed. "Naka~. _Damn—_ them boobs look plowable… like they always do."

"Yeah, yeah." Naka strutted up to him. "My cutie patootie friend here needs some buzz-be-gone shit. I know you used ta make it ta try an' get laid, fer whatever damn reason."

"Hey— you kill a dude's buzz, you get a fight almost right there." Suketame grinned back. "You beat 'em up 'cause he don't got a buzz anymore, an' ladies jump all over ya. Or he flattens my ass _'cause_ he don't got a buzz anymore— either way, ladies come an' pick me up at the end a' it."

"Not like gettin' or givin' a fuck's _hard."_ Naka looked jaded, for reasons unknown to Milla. "It ain't exactly science now."

"Well… yeah." Suketame admitted. "Y'gotta admit— s'_kinda_ clever, right?"

"...Sure is, sexy." Naka decided to butter him up.

Anyone could see his heart flutter. "Se- sexy… huh?"

Naka grinned harder. "So. 'Bout them buzzkillers…"

"Ah, yeah, lemme get some that shit from the back." Suketame stood up, getting off of a big rock that he was sitting on. "Who's this li'l cutie?"

"A ghost." Naka grinned. "A _drunk_ ghost. Speakin' a' science, I figured out ghosts can get shitfaced!"

"Wh— what the fuck?" Suketame looked somewhere between amused and intimidated. "I'm more concerned where ya learned ta chat up _ghosts._ Fuckin'... _ghosts!"_

"Ghosts!" Naka felt the need to echo. "Hehehe~!"

'_Uugh.'_ Milla winced an eye shut. _'My head's 'boutta pound outta my fluffy skull here…'_

Moving into his back room, deeper in the tall stone oni structure. It didn't seem like the oni used interior lighting for the most part, though Milla could see unlit candles and torch holsters around.

Yet, the backrooms were nearly black despite that. Milla stood in the main room still, gazing into the black that was whatever comprised this home's depths.

Naka had a brow raised. "...Checkin' out his ass?"

"...Nho." Milla's reply was prompt even while she was drunk. "Like I _could._ S'real… fhuckin' dark in thehre."

"Oh?" Naka pursed her lips. "So ghosts have as bad vision as humans, then. Or, some do. Interestin'..."

'_Wait, oni ca' shee ih' the dark? Or— bhetter, in the dark? What tha' fuhck? ...No wonder, they don't ushe windohws… so much...'_

"Aah." Milla nodded. "I _see._ Wat strong _eyes_ ya have."

Naka chuckled, letting her eyes drift shut. "You— _see,_ ah…? Fuckin'..."

Suketame came back out, holding a metal flask. "This's got the buzzkill shit."

He handed it off to Milla, who stared it down before moving to open it. "Jus' drinkh thish?"

"Mmm. Don't complain 'bout the headache. If Naka didn't tell ya, it's gonna leave ya reelin'."

"Yeah, yeah." Milla popped the cork open, and took a whiff of the concoction.

'_...Dunno whah it smells like. It's… potent, bu' noht bad. I think.'_

Without much hesitation— knowing delaying would just make things worse— Milla tilted her head back and chugged the watery liquid.

'_That—'_ It definitely didn't taste pleasant. _'Just—...'_ She focused hard on the ceiling, resisting the bitter taste like it were physically painful.

After gulping it down, she exhaled. "Nngh—... haa~h…"

'_My— head…'_

The sobering came quickly.

Milla held her waist. "...I—... I gotta— go _take a piss…"_

'_An' throw up maybe— good, god— fuck…'_

"Door's over there." Grinning slightly, Suketame pointed to a tinier door in the main room's corner.

"Don't take too long." Naka advised her. "This night's just gettin' started!"

'_I'll— take long as I damn well please, I'm dyin' here...'_

It never occured to Milla _why_ her ghost half would need to piss.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Milla found Naka standing around in the midst of the crossroads outside.

"...Yaknow." Naka saw her approach, and spoke nearly immediately when Milla was in ear shot. "If ghosts can have stomachs— what else _do_ they have?"

Milla felt lightheaded, but no longer drunk. "...A— a head that can _pound._ Fuck…"

Naka became smug. "How 'bout some beer? Eases the poundin' pretty easy, if you ask me…"

"Fuck yo~u." Milla shook her head, grinning pitifully. "Hope this goes away— like… _soon."_

Waving her disposition off, Naka began to walk idly down a random road. "Ah… yeah. Give it an hour 'er two."

'_Actually. I wonder…'_ Now that Milla wasn't drunk, her wits had come back to her some. _'Let's see.'_

She held her staff into the air, channeling magic. _"Moonlight Healing!"_

It was sunset. She looked around, trying to find the moon. _'Oh. There it is. ...Uh. I~ don't think this works too well during the day.'_

She held up her staff again. _'Still got another variant I can use. How about—'_

"_Photosynthesis!" _Milla shut her eyes, and focused.

Sun magic was strange. The solar elements— sun and moon— they were all around her at a certain time of day. The mere presence of these celestial bodies were enough to provide the needed elementalism for magic; but for many effects, the effort would vary greatly. Moon and sun worked best with minute effects like bodily enchantment, afflictions, or self-healing.

With the spell's simple incantation, a ray of natural, gold and green goodness in the form of light shined down upon Milla.

Instantly, her head and body soothed. _'Ooh. Fuck, yeah…'_ It was a feeling she could trace back to her shoulders and upper chest; a deep-reaching, physical comfort. It was the sun's warmth, and it felt great.

'_Sun's a bit better for curing curse hell. Moon's kinda best for direct regeneration, but they can also do the other's effects.'_

The sun's energy made her feel good— especially amidst the winter air. _'Warm… an' good.'_

'_This is basically takin' the sun's energy, similar to how a plant'd do it, and convertin' it to body energy. Not— quite— the same biologically, but y'know… magic helps smooth out fine details like that, sometimes. When it don't remain a huge pain in the ass, that is.'_

Naka's smile was tiny but bewildered. "What're you, a fuckin' flower?"

"Ye." Milla grinned back. "I'mma rowdy li'l flower."

"O— oh."

The oni settlement, despite being upon a mountain, felt strangely warm. _'Maybe all the oni bodies. 'Cause the oni definitely don't give a shit 'bout the elements, so they wouldn't be tryin' to make it warmer consciously...'_

Moving ahead, Naka gestured for her to follow. "Aa— anyways… actually," she gave Milla a more focused look. "The hell's a ghost do for _fun,_ now that I think of it…?"

Milla wasn't sure what to say. "Eat."

"...If yer _serious_ 'bout that, I know a good place 'er two in the busy parts." Naka began trailing down the road she was on with more purpose. "Yeah?"

That made Milla pause for a beat. "The fuck do oni _eat?_ I never actually thought about it!"

"Oh?" Naka stopped trailing ahead, grinning back at her. "Y'don't _know?_ ...I guess ya wouldn't. Well, what do ya think? We eat meat an' shit. Rocks, too."

'_Yeah— wait.'_ Milla blinked. _'Wh— rocks…?'_

"Rocks." Milla repeated. "...Y'serious?"

"Well, like, not _rocks."_ Naka clarified. "Them shiny rocks, I mean. I think it's called, uh… _metal?_ I guess that shit's metal."

"Like… iron?" Milla supposed.

"Nah." Naka shook her head. "Silver an' gold. You ever try 'em?"

"...No." Milla was pretty unattracted to the idea. "Just… do you just eat the _ore?"_

Naka scoffed. "Whah? Nah, we refine tha' shit. I mean, y'_can_ just eat the ore, but y'know… tastes better without the actual rocks."

Then, she looked thoughtful. "It can depend. We got some diehard alchemist types— way more sophisticated than uh, that little shit who made the buzzkill stuff. They do the purification process, but sometimes they really tamper wit' the metal, or they transmute it, and… it just ain't the same, y'know?"

"No, I don't know." Milla was grinning. "I— I don't eat _metal…_ I didn't think anyone ate metal! Pro'lly 'cause most people can't just _eat_ metal!"

Naka blinked. "Oo— oh? No _shit?_ What the fuck do you people eat fer fun an' shit? Well— not that _you_ gotta eat anymore, but…"

"We eat _chocolate _an' _candy_ an' uh, shit like fried chicken." Milla returned. "...Y'know, I think you'd like _fried chicken."_

"Aah, yeah— chocolate." Naka gave some big nods. "...If ya know about _that_, then I guess it'd be a good comparison. We eat gold an' shit like you'd eat chocolate, basically."

'_...How fuckin' weird!'_

Milla had another question. "You guys eat humans?"

"Ye." Naka replied simply. "Humans can be damn tender. You a ghost of anything that eats human, or…?"

"Huh." Milla had always wondered how humans tasted to youkai, but getting confirmation was good. "Yeah— nah, I didn't eat human. Still don't eat human. And, uh, no, I wouldn't be interested in _tryin'."_

"Aah." Naka had suspected as much… "D'you humans eat youkai?"

"Pft. No." Milla shook her head. "We only eat _animals. _No other people, no youkai, none a' that."

Naka snorted. "No wonder humans're fuckin' sticks. Anyway..."

She began to move. "I think I know a good place fer you. We _do_ eat animals up 'ere too, so… come along, flower girl. Flower—... hmm."

Pausing again, she gave Milla an aggressive smile. "How 'bout I call you _Flowey?"_

"No, don't." Milla wasn't sure why, but the cursed energy emanating from that nickname was too powerful, even for her.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

'_We, uh, found the people.'_

Oni in the city depths were densely packed together. Milla was thankful she was immaterial; pushing through the many oni who browsed the wide-but-not-enough streets of the more inner plazas would be an impossible task otherwise.

'_So many people just… naked, or borderline naked. An' honestly, lot less people being horny about it than I thought. I'm gettin' a fuckin' eyeful here…'_

'_And, speaking of!'_ Milla took in Naka's ass, as she followed her. _'Luckily ain't that many ash-colored oni, so followin' her around's kinda easy.'_

All of this wasn't to say that Milla hadn't seen a couple oni getting it on around town here or there, or in the midst of crowds. _'Such a different way of life. Sex is real damn casual here. I thought about it in a real negative way back in the village, 'cause it usually happened from you gettin' enslaved by Hakurei, or for political and utilitarian reasons, or whatever.'_

'_Here? I mean…'_ She saw some oni doing something between fighting and fucking earlier. _'I dunno. S'real hard for me to wrap my head around.'_

"Aah. Here." Naka stopped Milla before a big, three person tall doorway. "C'mon…"

When they browsed inside the brick-red building, Milla took in the dim, navy blue and cool-colored interior.

Blue candles kept this big room lit. It was a cafeteria or restaurant of a sort, fit with seats made of stone and what looked like deep blue cobalt all around the common floor.

Naka sat near the rightmost area, towards the back of the room. There weren't too many oni in here, so there were some free seats.

Milla took in some of the evening sky, through huge, open-air slit windows in the wall above the door. _'Such big damn design. The ceilings are all so high, the rooms so big, and the buildings… why— are— they so tall? Do oni live on the upper levels of 'em all?'_

"How do you guys get onto upper levels a' buildings?" Milla wondered. "I haven't seen a _staircase_ since I got here."

"...We jump." Naka's reply was apt.

'_Oh, right. They jump good.'_

Naka stood up, and began to move. "I'mma go grab the food. Be ri~ght back."

'_...How's trade for food even work. That bar only took yen 'cause he liked to fuckin' eat it like candy. It implies like… they just don't trade. Do they just give food away? How often do oni gotta eat? I'm so confused…!'_

As she scanned her gaze around the 'restaurant' with vague befuddlement, her attention slowly settled on someone who looked out of place…

It was a pale girl with short, bobby brown hair, and a petite figure. She seemed to have brown wings held close to herself, curled around her arms.

'_That chick's nearly naked. S'a— s'a subtle but important distinction! 'Cause she ain't just lettin' it all hang out like the oni do.'_

She had grey cloth wrapped around her chest, and a grey fundoshi.

'_S'that a… tengu? Looks like what people call a tengu. But, aren't tengu and oni enemies? Unless… even they've got some of that fairy tale cross-species romance shit.'_

'_Or, she's a slave. One or the other.'_

The tengu met Milla's gaze. Milla stared into hers for awhile, and they began to silently judge one another.

Naka came back, with a plate of stuff. "Haa~h. Here we are!"

_Click._ She sat down a big wood board, and on it were various cooked meats. _'Ooh, shit. Ah, s'not burnt either. I half suspected they ate it carbonized, but it looks like they got some culinary tact. Of some sort, anyway.'_

"S'this… barbecue?" Milla was somewhat surprised to see it here.

"Mmm? Yeah. S'a pretty safe go-to." Naka figured. "Ya like it?"

"Yeah, looks good." Milla was fine with it. "Just kinda surprised ta see it. S'pretty rarely cooked outside a' certain places in the village."

"Had ta quickly deal with one a' the barbecue hobbyists." Naka sat down next to Milla, exhaling. "Nnh. I keep forgettin' which one liked my tits. If I picked the wrong one, this mighta taken like, thirty more minutes."

Milla was ready to be surprised again. "...Uuh. Why."

"Well…" Naka considered how to explain it. "So, everyone comes and has a mini-fight of a kind wit' the dudes who come around and cook a fuckton of food. But, s'not like we'll have a _big damn war_ over some chicken or beef. Would be cold by the time we'd be done. So… we _arm wrestle._"

She then grinned. "Most times, you lose, ya just don't get the food an' you gotta try someone else, or try again a li'l later. But I'm pretty sure there's one dude here who wants ta fuck. I say this 'cause, we fucked a few times before."

"...How the hell do ya sustain businesses off _arm-wrestling."_ Milla wondered. "How do ya people trade resources?"

"...Fighting?" Naka grinned. "I mean, unlike _humans,_ we really don't _gotta_ eat constantly. Bein' topped off just feels good. That, an' it can be hard to roar around on an empty stomach. And we don't really need a lot of fancy shit, and building things ain't hard. But, uh…"

Naka remembered something. "If one of them alchemists wanted a meat meal, or somethin', they could just trade straight-up. So, we _do_ trade shit, but we ain't exactly stingy if ya don't got nothin' to trade."

'_...I guess that makes sense. Oni are more concerned faffin' about and gettin' buzzed than they are like, trying to survive. Nothing can hurt them, they can last long periods of time without food, they don't get sick, and they don't get alcohol poisoning… or, at least, not in a way that matters.'_

'_So, that's like, every fuckin' human motive gone. Every motive except partyin', proving yourself, and fuckin'.'_

...Milla pointed at the tengu. "Anyway, uh… what's the story on her?"

Naka's stare back at her was ginger. "Do I _look_ like a mind reader ta you?"

"I mean— why's a _tengu_ here?" Milla wanted to know. "Not her _life's story._ Ya look like ya have trouble reading yer own mind…!_"_

Naka gave her a playfully aggressive glare, before smiling. "Ooh. I mean, you humans took tengu prisoners too, yeah? Basically the same idea~... 'cept we ain't scared of 'em when we got 'em captured. An' I'm pretty sure we got more. They kinda fit into the whole 'human-y fetish' category. 'Cause they look human, 'side from the pointy ears. Most oni say they're pretty nice fucks, when ya butter 'em up right."

'_Ah. So, slaves would be correct then.'_

"Most agree tha' wolf tengu're better, though." Naka added. "Once they get a bit feral."

"Life's weird." Milla marveled at everything. "Man…"

Naka nodded. "I forget. Didja say no to hittin' up an orgy, earlier?"

Milla looked down at the meats. "If I didn't before, that's gonna be a 'no' from me now!"

"Aawh."

'_Yeah, I dunno 'bout fuckin' no oni. Pretty sure their sex drive is way beyond mine, and big dudes… I dunno. Also, uh, I don't wanna test how my bones'd react to thrustin', or how bad it'd hurt to get my insides stretched. Though— I think they got sane dick sizes. Well, sane enough. Still…'_

Milla levitated some of the barbecue meat closer. _'Anyway! While I still have an appetite, let's waste all this food on my ghost belly!'_

Watching her begin taking small bites, Naka quickly gained a jaded look. "Y'know, since yer body's immaterial and all, couldn't ya have just _pretended_ ta lift it like a normal dude?"

Milla shrugged, swallowing a bite. "Mmh. I mean, even if I _did_ do it the manly way_,_ I could just vaporize the mess on my hands afterward anyway. Look at it this way: all the juices _stay_ on the meat, instead a' my hands."

"...Huu~h." Naka hadn't thought of it like that. "Shit. S'kind of a good point…"

As Milla settled in and enjoyed the strangely tender, flavorful meat, she took in the noise of the eatery. Oni were boisterous and loud, but the murmur here was only mildly louder than she was used to.

'_Probably much more noticeable and annoyin' to someone else… but it all becomes white noise you kinda tune out.'_

"Omh…" After downing another bite, Milla found a new question. "The fuck you guys _do_ with your kids? 'Cause like, you talk about sex like people _always _have it here."

"Oh!" Naka tilted her head back. "That _would_ be confusin'. A lot of us oni are kinda long-lived, so we don't gotta _breed constantly_ like humans. Childbirth ain't exactly like, _difficult_ for us, but pregnancy's still annoyin'. Still gotta kinda take it easy."

Then, she chuckled. "Not as easy as a human, though. Nnh, hehehe..."

...After thinking it over, Naka centered her gaze on Milla, instead of the meats. "Anyway, uuh… oh, right. Onis're only fertile seasonally. Y'might be thinking in human terms an' shit, but we ain't vulnerable every month."

'_That's—'_ Milla wasn't sure what to think about that. _'That's pretty different!'_

"Do you guys still fuck an' fight-fuck durin' those months?"

"Well, yeah." Naka grinned. "S'just got a heavier weight durin' them."

...Milla had another question. "Again, what do ya _do_ with the kids?"

"Ah, we usually leave 'em to fend for themselves." Naka revealed casually. "They usually group up an' take care of each other plenty. Only people they can really fight's each other, but no one goes outta their way to fuck with 'em either. 'Cause like, there ain't really a _point._ If I went and fought a kid, I'd just win. S'not really impressive or anything."

Then, she leered. "Now, if like _twenty_ kids tried ta fight me at once, _then_ there'd be no holdin' back! That kinda thing's sorta rare though."

It was an idea difficult at first for Milla to comprehend, but then she thought about it. "...Do oni around town like, help take care of 'em, or look out for 'em?"

"Well, kinda." Naka shrugged. "They can work together real nice, but we want 'em to y'know, _survive,_ so we do help out if they ask, or look like they need it. We were all little shits once too."

"What do parties of like _twenty_ need ta fight the adults for, then?" Milla wondered… "Especially since they're just _given_ stuff. Do they get greedy?"

"Well, if they wanna have sex with a bigger oni, that's kinda what'cha gotta agree to. S'gonna take all twenty of ya to get it done!" Naka provided.

'_Hu~h. No shit? So— the kids're the ones who do the raping…!? Do the oni consider it rape? It seems like the oni really don't give a shit about sex…!'_

Naka watched Milla's expression. "Which _has_ happened. Usually they don't win… an' if they do, they find out that punchin's only the first half. _Sex's_ the second half a' the fight. That's the one they just _don't_ win."

'_...Y'know, it's very, very easy ta see why everyone's scared shitless of oni. I feel like I'd probably die— no, I'd absolutely certainly die, if I was up here in human form. Be it 'cause someone punched me without holdin' back, or 'cause I caved and let a dude dick me to death.'_

Milla had one more question before she'd really get to eating. "...Y'know. If I was a _human_ and not a ghost, how would I fare up here?"

Naka nodded. "Well, uh, you'd die."

Milla smiled. "S'about what I thought!"

"Yeah, no offense, but since we _kinda eat humans,_ our first instinct'd probably be ta break ya." Naka provided. "...I mean, alternatively someone'd keep ya as a slave. Pro'lly not here in the city, but in more remote mountains, I could totally see a human buddy bein' cute. I mean _you're_ cute, so if you were ali~ve…"

...Milla met Naka's gaze.

Naka licked her lips. "I could _totally_ see fuckin' you good. You'd be so damn _numb_ afterward…"

"I'm glad I'm dead." Milla wasn't terribly interested.

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Having heard word of the palace held by 'the big four' of the oni mountain, or 'the four devas', Milla had Naka lead her towards it, if only to see it from the ground level.

"Between all these tall-ass buildings, is a _huge ass palace."_ Naka seemed to like describing it. "It's—... issa bit prettier than like, _all the other_ buildings around it. S'got a lawn, and a kinda-garden and everything."

"How _old_ do oni become again?" Milla heard they _could_ live up to the thousands, but…

Pausing amidst the busy road to the 'capital', Naka thought about this...

"It really depends. Two hundred years is, like… _later_ in most oni's lives. An' even after that, they can survive a good, _long_ time. Bu~t… age can really vary. The devas of the mountain; they've lived for almost a thousand years, an' don't show any signs of stoppin'. They've lived long enough fer some oni to die of old age, and fer other's kids to die of old age. That's how long they've been kickin'."

'_Damn.'_

"'Course, two hundred years ain't long ta us." Naka smiled. "S'just that humans die so damn fast!"

'_...Somethin' like that, I guess.'_

Keeping close to Naka's figure, Milla trailed after her once she took the lead again. Naka herself pushed her way through the leagues of oni populating the densely packed plazas here.

Then, after rounding some massive corners, through a veritable sea of warm oni people, Milla saw it.

'_Holy fuck. It's like the Hakurei Castle, except if I took a shit on it.'_

From below, Milla looked up and saw a big, sloped incline up an angular stone hill.

At the bottom and top of the stone hill were patches of grass and brush, with cherry blossom trees dotting the small gardens in an almost uniform manner.

Unlike the Hakurei Castle, it wasn't a structure with such girth, or numerous spires. It was one solid structure, a huge oriental palace, with a _lot_ of outward-facing damage that definitely wasn't weather related. _'Unless oni could be considered weather.'_

Gradually, Naka and Milla worked their way out of the crowd, and when they came to the monolithic stone tiles that made up the floor around the deva's palace proper, they were isolated.

"We… should _probably _stop here." Naka decided. "Marchin' farther up to the place ain't exactly _safe._ An' I ain't lookin' to fight no _devas_ now. 'Cause like…"

Milla faced her. Naka described the impossibility of the fight. "Y'know how it takes twenty kids ta topple a full-grown oni, about? Well, it takes like _two hundred_ full-grown oni to do almost nothin' to a single damn deva. They're on a league of their own. An' trust me, _we've all tried._ Got knocked the fuck out by two, before…"

Milla gazed upon the high-up structure. It stood even above the surrounding buildings; the stone slope and stairway it sat upon was four stories on its own. Then, the palace itself was five stories on its own.

'_Huge. What the hell do four people need with a place this big? ...Well, guess they're oni after all, but still.'_

...Then, Milla turned right, and saw a pink-haired oni stomping closer. She had a big smile, as she came up.

'_An' who's—'_

She tried to grip Milla by either of her shoulders. She was going to pull down, to rip her right in half.

Milla was ghostie, however. _'Woah.'_ The pink-haired oni's arms phased right through.

"Yo— what the hell." As the oni retracted her arms, Milla grinned at her. "Get yer hands outta my _boob space."_

Naka turned, and saw her. "...Oo— oh! Shit… uh. Hey, Ibaraki."

Ibaraki exhaled. "Nnh. Undead, it'd seem. I thought I'd smelled _human,_ but… it was just this _ghost,_ I suppose."

Snorting, Naka looked Milla over. "Aa—... ah. Yeah. Mima here, she's real fun. Didn't know shit 'bout the mountain until today. I think she mighta died recently."

"Ho~h?" Ibaraki tilted her head back. "And what binds her to this world, then? Is it something _important?"_

"I gots amnesia." Milla threw out a bog standard trope. "I musta needed ta take a leak in my last life, 'cause I feel like I still gotta take it!"

"...Mmm." Ibaraki didn't buy it, but it really didn't mean anything to her either. "Very unfortunate. You're lucky you're already dead, or you'd be even deader. If I'd have killed you, you'd be even more dead. You wouldn't come back."

"Ooh, _super_ dead, ze…" Milla nodded, deciding to be airy. "I wonder what that feels like."

With that, Ibaraki began to stomp off. "Hmmh."

'_What an edgelord.'_

...When Ibaraki was halfway up the massive steps, Naka dared to add onto the discussion. "If ya ask me, Ibaraki's kind of an _asshole._ The rest're uuh, 'bout what ya'd expect. They think they're hot shit… 'cause they _are,_ but they're also pretty jolly an' shit. Ibaraki kinda just gets off on bein' a cunt."

"Ah, so she _is_ an edgelord." Milla gave another vague nod. "Do oni have periods?"

"Pft." Naka snorted. "...Not really, no. We throw the term around to insult each other, but uh, s'one of those human dialect things."

'_Ah, naturally.'_

...Slowly, Milla tilted her gaze back, and watched the evening sky as stars began to appear in the black and blue.

'_This town just… emanates warmth. Muggy, intense warmth. So much red earth used to sculpt everything, and it's so… I dunno. It has this real rustic vibe, despite everything.'_

"Aah." Suddenly, Milla had an idea. "Since the oni can't hit me, how 'bout I go into the palace an' case the place?"

Naka's eyes flared in excitement, before she shook her head. "Uuh. I dunno, man… Ibuki— descendant a' Shuten— she's got some crazy magic. One of 'em can cut through spirits with her blade… _though,_ neither of 'em are particularly like, mean-spirited… still— swattin' you'd be like swattin' a fly. They'd find a way to kill ya if ya pissed 'em off enough."

'_...Well, now I kinda wanna see this Ibuki dude's crazy magic.'_

"Aah. I'll be careful."

Milla already knew that if her spirit was slain by normal means, it'd just go back to her body; just the physical form would be dispelled. Unless, of course, the oni managed something _special,_ but if being annihilated by Kiyoko's super-charged _Judgment_ didn't kill Milla, she was pretty confident.

'_I could've actually been killed— or sealed, whichever— by mum's rainbow laser, but I buffered it enough to avoid that. Damn scary shit…'_

"Stay here, Nakey." Milla asked Naka to wait. "I'm goin' in!"

With that, Milla began to float up the huge staircase.

Naka exhaled, tensing herself. "Alright, dude. Just, don't get yerself squashed now. What yer doin's brave, but—... y'don't _hafta_—... nnh."

'_Ghost me is suicidal.'_ Milla grinned to herself, as she drifted further away. _'But I'm gettin' to the bottom of what these four fuckos do up here!'_

Halfway up the stairs, Milla turned around, and beheld the tall, greyish buildings, cast a crimson red by the warmth of the randomly hung torches around the oni city.

Then, she passed Ibaraki who was stomping up the stairs.

Ibaraki glared at Milla. "...What're _you_ doing?"

"I'm takin' a tour." Milla explained. "Y'don't mind, right?"

"...Whatever."

'_Neat. Man, stuff gives ya so many passes when it thinks you're already dead.'_

They came up to the front double doors of the deva's palace. Milla pushed through first, leaving Ibaraki behind.

This wooden room had neat green carpets, couches, and paneling on the shoji, fit with floral designs. The chandeliers of candles hung from the ceiling's wood beams were bright and clean.

"Not a lot to see up here anyway." Ibaraki walked in, straight through Milla, and deeper inside. "Just don't _fuck around."_

'_...I'm gonna fuck around.'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

'_Y'know, she really wasn't kidding!'_

There were many rooms of vague purpose, housing mostly furniture and pristine architecture. A few rooms had seen long unattended to damage, but largely, a lot of the palace was the same.

'_Unlike the Hakurei hell hotel, there's… really, really few people in here. I guess it's just them four. Not sure if I like an empty castle better than one I gotta barely sneak through.'_

The entire place was lit, which seemed like a waste of candles. _'An' I think they do burn out, 'cause some halls and rooms ain't lit. Who replaces the candles? You'd think you'd only get like, a floor burning consecutively before the candles actually melt while you're still lightin' more candles.'_

'_...Maybe that's what's happenin' right now! An' they got confused on their order of candle lighting operations! No wonder random ones are burnt out. What a fresh hell this must be.'_

'_Man, I'm fuckin'... too in my own head.'_

Milla hadn't talked to a soul after she lost track of Ibaraki. _'Would rather be alone than with that edgelord anyway. Still though…'_

Finding another stairway— this one big and regal— Milla took it, scaling the green stone that defined the steps.

'_Ooh. This stairway's a bit different than all the littler mid-palace navigational ones.'_

At the top, Milla entered a huge room.

The floor one story down from the top of the deva's palace was an arena. The stairs lead up into the midst of a big yin-yang sigil, which was printed into a rugged, uneven stone floor.

The sigil was worn-down from abrasion, some of the stone it sat on chipped away, or having obviously shattered otherwise. _'Hu~h.'_

"Mmgh— mmh— mmm…" Straight ahead, on a big red chair in the arena's back, a little oni sat. She was gorging herself on alcohol straight from a gourd. Around her, fresh fruits were sat on small end-tables around the chair.

'_Aw. One of the devas must have a kid, ze.'_

With a ginger but satisfied smile, Milla strutted up to the little, orange-haired oni girl. "Hey there, sweetie."

The oni met Milla's gaze with vague surprise. Then, she grinned. "Aawh. An' who're _you?"_

"Mima." Milla gave her name simply. "Which one a' the devas' yer mom? S'it the pink-haired bitch?"

...At first, the little oni simply stared at her.

"Nhk—" Then, she laughed. "Pfft— hehuhahaha~! Aawh… guess y'got _balls,_ then. Pinkie's as bitchy as a mom sometimes, I'll give ya tha'. Fuck you up here ta do?"

Milla gave a casual shrug. "I 'unno. Sightseein'? Kinda new 'round these parts. More a tourist, really."

"Oo~h. Wait…" The orange-haired oni pointed at herself. "Y'know _who_ I am?"

...Milla pursed her lips. "Pinkie was Ibaraki, right? Then, uuh… Ibaraki's kid?"

...Grinning stupidly, chuckling under her breath, the oni shook her head. "Fuckin'... _nn— no,_ I don't _think_ so. I'm _Ibuki."_

Ibuki, descendent of Shuten Douji, leader of the devas, making her the ultimate oni in essence. _'Least, as far as this mountain's concerned. Not… sure how many other oni towns there are.'_

Milla tilted her head. "...Are you?" At the same time, she couldn't be too sure. "I mean— I might be the queen a' England."

Ibuki smirked, giving her an adorable attempt at a stink-eye. "We~ll, I guess we're jus' _both_ at an impasse then, ah? Anyways— this place's got a pretty kick-ass view."

'_Actually… didn't Naka say this Ibuki chick's got some crazy magic? If she's tellin' the truth, she can show me.'_

"If yer really Ibuki, ya must have some powerful magic an' shit." Milla pointed at her. "How's about you show me? And— not by hitting me with it. I'd fuckin' vaporize."

"Aah? Huh." Ibuki wasn't often asked for this sort of thing; especially as her magic wasn't exactly her pride as an oni. "Was 'boutta offer you a drink, but, if ya _say so._ Uuh… kinda need somethin' ta _cast on,_ tho'..."

Milla aimed her alloy staff at the floor leading up to Ibuki, and created something.

_Fwi~sh._ It was a chunk of steel with a big smiley face on it. "How's this?"

"Oo~h…" Ibuki nodded. "You know magic too, huh. Suppose we wouldn't be the first."

"I practice it a lot." Milla decided to reveal a little about herself. "How 'bout you?"

"Aa~h. Ooh, I'm _rusty."_ Ibuki nodded. "Lemme see~..." She reeled a hand back.

_woosh._ Then, she tossed a black orb at the person-sized steel block. It phased into the metal, and—

_fwoa~m._ With the bending of light, space and time, the steel block was consumed into the black hole. It was taken inside slowly; the metal had not bent, broke, snapped or transformed.

It was disintegrated. The particles themselves were torn straight from the dense steel, forgoing the material's strength, deleting the entire object from existence.

So it seemed. Then, with her other arm, Ibuki chucked a white orb into the air, as if she'd just finished juggling it.

_FWOAA~SH!_ It exploded outward, the light blinding—

_BOOM!_ Milla jumped in place. "Ee— aa—"

The white hole had shot an asteroid of steel straight at her, and it bounced off the ground where she stood, having passed entirely through her.

_Clack- clunk- cla- clack._ The pieces of the asteroid shattered into pieces in the air behind Milla, all raining to the floor.

'_...What the fuck was that?'_

Milla had absolutely no idea how that had happened. None.

'_No mana moved… the air rippled a bit, but—... what? That wasn't teleportation. That was… something else.'_

"Neat trick, ah?" Ibuki grinned ear-to-ear. "Y'look surprised."

"Yeah. Plenty." Milla couldn't so much as read Ibuki's mana pool; it was if she had none, but that was likely an obvious lie. "How're ya _obscurin'_ your mana pool? I can't detect, like, the _usual_ tricks behind that shit."

Ibuki leaned back, and restlessly placed her feet atop the chair's edges. She gave Milla an eyeful of white fundoshi under her skirt, but didn't seem to care. "Aah… now, if I _told ya,_ that wouldn't make me a _spooky magic oni,_ now _would_ it?"

"Fa~ir." Milla nodded…

"Say—" Ibuki snapped her fingers—

_KRACK!_ Lightning exploded from her fingers when she did so. "Ah— static." She muttered as if this were a natural event. "Say, can ya go round the bitches up? We were gonna party tonight, but _Kasen_ fergot ta fuckin' stick around and round everyone up. When she gets 'er _blood chub_ goin'— y'know, she just kinda fucks off."

'_Blood chub.'_ Milla was amazed. _'I'm stealing that.'_

Milla wasn't _quite_ sure who she meant. "Kasen?"

Ibuki paused. "...Oh, right. Everyone calls 'er _Ibaraki._ Yeah— her. An' uuh… yer pro'lly gonna wanna go visit _Konngara_ first. She's pro'lly off puttin' swords in her vagina again, 'er somethin'. She'll know how ta wake Yuugi up if she's takin' a fuckin' cat nap. I mean, Kass— ah, Ibaraki _could,_ but if it was ta help_ you_, she pro'lly wouldn't, so don't even bother."

Standing up on her chair, Ibuki twisted her neck around. "I'll go fuck wit' Ibaraki, see what _she's_ up to. Bitch pro'lly forgot the food again— and it's been _her turn_ fer _three gods-be-damned weeks now,_ and—"

...She smiled at Milla, cutting her own diatribe short. "Aah, yeah, anyways! Anything, uh—..." She seemed to search the air vacantly, before, her gaze met her gourd.

"_Mmn—"_ Tilting her head back, she guzzled from it. "Mmm…"

Milla was starting to notice something… "How much fuckin' beer's _in _that thing?"

Ibuki spilled a whole bottle's worth down her shirt, before she remembered to tilt it up, smiling at Milla. "Aah? ...Sake bug. I ain't fuckin' _ever_ runnin' out! Also!"

_thump._ A trap door opened under Milla.

"Have a _nice trip,_ girl!"

...Milla continued to stand there, refusing to fall.

Looking lazier, Ibuki pointed down. "Uuh, yer gonna find Konngara's room if ya go down there. Was uh, tryin'a be clever an' all..."

Milla snorted. "Aa— ah. 'Kay…" With that, she slowly descended into the trap door…

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

_shoof._ Milla descended through a square hole in the ceiling.

The room was quite plain. Bleak, white candle light cast the shoji-accented room in clean light.

Drifting before the floor, Milla looked around, until she saw who she probably needed to talk to.

Konngara sat upon her futon, polishing a blade which gleamed with yellow light along its flats. She had long, black hair, and a big red horn that stuck out of her forehead, parting her bangs.

"Yo—"

_SHING!_ ...Konngara whipped the blade from polishing and into activity in an instant. It stuck in the air just before Milla's throat.

'_It can cut spirits, huh…'_ Milla stared down the bright blade's edge with no small amount of anxiety.

"...Easy." Milla kept her voice level— or tried to. "Ih— Ibuki sent me. Some kinda _party."_

"...Ah." Konngara drew the blade back easily. "Thank you. And, you are?"

"Mima." Milla had to repeat herself. "Came around ta do some sightseein'... but when _Ibuki_ asks a favor of ya…"

Konngara smiled, and nodded. "She's quite charismatic, isn't she? Polishing my blades can wait, then."

Milla searched the room's walls.

There were many blades. Every wall had at least ten hung up at different angles, each glimmering with a different color, fixed with a different hilt, had a different sort of blade, or some combination therein.

'_Suits of armor, different kimonos and gis, different sandals—... different swords. She's a fuckin' collector herself.'_

"I see you like yer samurai shit." Milla commented on the armory all around herself.

"Mmm?" Konngara paused, as she hung up the blade she was polishing. "Aah. How did you guess?"

"...Call it instinct."

Smiling, Konngara faced her, standing fully from the futon.

"I really do appreciate the discipline and art here." She assured Milla. "Of the land of Japan. Do you?"

"I guess." Milla never thought about it, or even cared that much. "Gets kinda same-y around here."

"...If you don't travel, maybe. Or rather, perhaps you don't see the value in discipline. Someone as young as you wouldn't, would you? Young _Ikiryou_ of the living plane."

'_Oo— oh, shit, she knows.'_

"I've traveled the _world."_ Konngara held her arms out. "Yet, this land… I find myself coming back to it. Personal ties here aside. Especially now… as the world is beginning to feel more barren. I feel like the world will be bare in all but appearance someday, and I'll be spending my days picking at the pieces, observing the ruins."

She beheld her wall of blades. "So, until then… I'd like to _live._ As much as I possibly can. Were your living host here, perhaps I'd have challenged you for stepping foot in here. It takes someone with _guts_ to appear before me, normally. But, as you are now, there's no point."

...Then, she smiled. "That aside… have you ever been interested in the sword?"

_Whish- SHING!_ Drawing a blade from the wall in one stroke, Konngara swept it out in a crescent, drawing a colorful green line in the air; it was the color of the light reflected off the blade. "If there's anything I must pride humans on, it is this creation. Their dedication to the blade. Though they haven't the time to practice it as I do… skill is not only decided by time."

"But it's decided a bit by power, innit?" Milla interjected.

"...True." Konngara admitted. "In an ideal duel, power is but a small piece, however. The passages and arts of the blade are, in essence, a method to circumvent the powerful. That is what I appreciate."

"Few here share this realization."

Gazing upon her wall of blades again, Konngara stood tall. "I have forged all these blades myself. They all have a soul, a subset of skill and practice that goes into knowing them. The way of the samurai is this practice. Dedication to the blade. To the discipline, the _nuance_ of every sword."

"Don't oni not give a big shit 'bout weapons or fancy techniques?" Milla supposed that _was_ what made Konngara here distinct, but… "Doesn't that make you kind of an outcast?"

Turning, Konngara gazed down at Milla. She was a tall but somewhat thin oni, somewhere over six feet in height. "We gladly use rocks and clubs in the midst of battle, but we don't look down on them. The blade is simply another method to exercise technique with a tool of force. And, may I add, the most advanced and skillful of them all. It is the lightest club, and sharpest knife. Other oni do not see it; the sword _is_ power. It is a _symbol_ of power. The samurai's way… it _is_ power!"

She held her blade into the air, as if attempting to be dramatic. "I stand on the precipice of ultimate power. With all the small curves, perfections of blade durability, all the nuance of each sword— I will perfect the ultimate show of strength _and_ technique."

_Whish!_ She held her green blade before Milla. "See the steel? Or rather, the _chlorophyte._ This green blade is born from the earth; and with it, its attacks are light as the wind, and venomous as a snake's bite. It is very inefficient against the oni, but such subtle, intricate slices are fit for plants and beast alike. It is the martyr of the jungle, and its sacrifice has propelled me above even its kings."

'_...Wow. What a nerd!'_ Milla was slightly intimidated by all the seeming knowledge, but she also grinned in incredulity at how quickly Konngara had opened up…

"Aah. Yeah." She replied numbly. "Beasts an' kings, an' all that. Anyway— I think dinner's ready, y'know…"

"Ah." Konngara's head tilted back. "...Yes. My thanks. ...Has Yuugi awoken yet?"

"Pro'lly _no~t."_ Milla drawled, scratching the back of her own head again. "We oughta go push 'er out of bed."

...Konngara looked to the wall, and took a blade that emitted brown and black energy from it. With a simple flick of her offhand, the other green-yellow blade snapped back onto its rack across the room.

"I'm ready." Konngara assured her.

'_One down, one ta go~. I ought ask that Ibuki chick 'bout magic, when we get back. An' about that sake bug…'_

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

Yuugi— or as Milla learned, Yuugi Hoshiguma, lived in the basement quarters of the palace.

'_Ibaraki basically owns the common grounds. No one goes there anyway, so she kinda just got given 'em. She apparently planted the cherry blossoms! She apparently also does like, building maintenance. Konngara joked that might be why she's so pissed all the time. I dunno.'_

'_Ibuki sits at the top, an' otherwise just crawls around the city an' lazes about. Fit fer a ruler, I guess. Not like the oni ruler'd have any expectations.'_

'_Konngara herself? I dunno, I guess she lives in the forge, and roams around the mountain an' city. She does her own thing, I guess.'_

'_An' Hoshiguma here— or Yuugi, as all her pals seem ta call her—...'_

_THOO~M._ Konngara effortlessly pushed a huge, red and gold steel door open.

There was a humongous snore. An echoing, _gargantuan_ exhale of air in the dark.

_Shi~ng._ Konngara created light with her blade, which lit ablaze from how she flicked it into the air before herself.

Ahead, Yuugi laid on a massive, annihilated mattress, a crater made in it and in the stone below where she slept.

Amidst the destroyed bed and stone floor, a red sake dish lay on her stomach, still slightly filled, impeccably untouched and unscratched.

One big bottle of sake was in her right arm's clutches, three more laid up against her side. The bottles were sturdy stuff, and Milla couldn't see how much was left inside each through their slightly cracked, shell-like exteriors.

If the room weren't made entirely of well-reinforced stone, Milla probably would've vibrated around from her next snore. _'Holy fucking shit…'_

Konngara stepped up to Yuugi. "...Hoshiguma."

_Creak._ The giant, gold-red metal door behind Milla tilted back slightly from the next snore. _'I— I think she's as good as dead, dude. Ain't no one who ever slept like this before…! What the hell's this place anyway, a tomb!?'_

Konngara lowered her blade. Holding it with both arms, she poised herself to stab it through Yuugi's stomach.

_BOOM- KRAKRRKOOM!_ The impact of the sword on her gut was absolutely seismic.

Milla saw nothing but dust.

'_Did she just cave the place in. What— happened…'_ Milla had shut her eyes and flinched back from the noise instinctively. It was like a meteor had struck; not that she even knew what that would sound like, but it was one of the loudest thing _ever._

'_If I had ears, they'd be bleeding!'_

Then, the dust settled.

The mightiest of snores pushed it all back to the edges of the room. Yuugi's bed was even more vaporized, her having been pushed deeper into the crater by the mighty finishing stab.

Konngara had never pierced her flesh.

"I see…" She stepped back. "I see, I see. Very well!"

She began to run up the opposite wall, towards the ceiling.

"_EARTH—"_

_WOOSH!_ She flipped off the wall, spinning through the air, her flaming, earth-crested sword lighting up with an ancient glow.

"_RUMBLING—"_

After-images of her downward ascent and impending sword blow played out before Konngara herself cleaved down, fazing around like a small rainfall of particles. _'What the actual fuck— uuh—'_

Milla retreated—

"_DECAPITATION"_

Konngara's sword plunged down into Yuugi's gut, and blinding, brown-white light exploded out.

_KRAAAK- KROO~M!_

Milla, despite rooting herself firmly in the air, felt like she was being blown away, as rock and dust billowed through her.

'_Fuu~ck…'_

Red, yellow, black, brown, white— all manner of colors were unleashed from Konngara, filling the room and rubble with an unholy combination of force and power. This was the aura Konngara exuded from such an attack, overwhelming and all-consuming.

_Shunk._ In the space-defying, black and starry void left around Yuugi in the attack's destructive end, Konngara reclaimed her katana from Yuugi's gut.

A pool of crimson sat under Yuugi's body, revealed as the stars, black and blue void recessed into the fabric of space itself. The air returned to normal, and ultimate light regressed back into Konngara's form.

_kri- krack, krack._ In the next instant, Yuugi's ribs corrected themselves, and her skin already began to aggressively fight the injury, as if fighting the idea of mortality itself.

"Nn—" She winced an eye open. Then, she slowly, drearily began to blink. "Nnhuh…"

_Kra— krack._ She sat up. There was a Yuugi-shaped crater in the floor, as she fully sat up…

She tilted her head to the side—

_KRACK, KRUHK- KRAHK._ Milla _felt_ every kink in Yuugi's neck undoing itself with enough ferocity to shatter a human's whole body on its own.

"Ko~ng…" Yuugi looked groggy. "Wha' the fuck… why'd ya wake me _up._ I was sleepin' fer a _reason,_ y'fuckin' steel-lickin', clit-stickin'—..."

Konngara's response was apt. "I—"

"_Cock-suckin'."_ Yuugi spoke up, very eager to get at least that out.

Konngara was unfazed. "I'd be rude, to not wake you up for the party."

Yuugi perked up instantly. "...Ooh! Well, fuck me!"

She stood up quickly, pushing off the floor with an awkwardly human amount of force, before jaunting up to Milla.

"Hey— who the fuck're you." Yuugi grinned at Milla. "Y'know what? Don't answer that— it don't matter! Konga— has it started yet!?"

"No." Konngara stated. _"Probably not,_ at any rate—"

"Nah." Yuugi decided. "Yer wrong."

...Konngara paused, furrowing her brows, before slouching. "Aah— aah, right— you're—"

"It's started now— 'cause I _AM THE PARTY!"_

_woosh!_ She walked right through Milla. _'Fuckin'— can people stop doin' that!? It's weird! God…!'_

Konngara sighed. "—you're the party, yes."

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_ Yuugi's bounds down the hall immediately grew in power and volume, as she powered a trail down the palace cellar halls ahead. Barrels of booze were jostled, despite being held firmly in place by solid steel beams.

Yuugi was the self-appointed defender of the booze. It's not like anyone would _steal _it, but people would certainly challenge her for it all, and she was more than happy to oblige a marathon of fighting. Of all the devas, while she wasn't the most skilled, some would call her the most _oni_ of all of them, and of any oni.

'_She's dynamite. Not just 'cause she has huge tits— I mean she's literally gonna blow everything the fuck up!'_

...As she powered off, Konngara slowly paced up to Milla's side.

"Yuugi Hoshiguma, if you weren't aware." She figured Milla would be uneducated; which was accurate, because Milla wasn't. "Of all of us, she has the greatest raw strength."

'_Is that so.'_

Milla spoke deliberately. "...I know they say two's a party, but she's a crowd all her own."

Milla smiled. _'Damn. My wit really came out fer that one!'_

Konngara had a stifled smirk. "...You really thought about that one, didn't you?"

"Ah, fuck you."

_MAD MAGICIAN MILLA_

More oni populated the staircase up to Ibuki's adorned throne now, making Milla purse her lips in vague interest. _'I thought no one else lived here. Where'd these clowns come from?'_ They didn't look like anyone important…

Coming up to the stair's apex, Milla could hear Yuugi— or Hoshiguma— as well as Ibaraki and Ibuki.

"Glad I don't gotta _flatten yer ass_ again, Kassy." Yuugi pat Ibaraki on the back—

_WHAM!_ Ibaraki was almost planted face-first into a pink cake on the table. "Fh- _fhuck!"_ She glared pure violence back at Yuugi, as she recovered. "I'll turn yer sweaty muscles into a _stew,_ ya big damn _toe."_

"Pft— hk— hahaha~!" Yuugi got a kick out of that. "Wh— what tha' fuck—"

"Quit yer _bitchin,_ Kasen." Ibuki had a big grin of her own.

"You're a _whore,_ Suika."

"Hehehe~! Some big words from an _actual_ whore!"

"Fucker…"

There were two huge, long dining tables in the arena up here. Oni were filing into the the room from the staircase Milla had used, and people were slowly populating the arena floor.

It's not that they weren't loud and obnoxious. The devas were just louder.

Milla snorted. _'So her real person name's Suika, then. Actually…'_

"How many oni got surnames?" Milla asked Konngara… "An' what's _yer_ real-person name?"

Konngara took in a breath. "..._Konngara._ First name Konngara, last name Konngara."

Milla smirked. "So, yer name'd be Konn Konn, ah? _Konngara Konngara."_

She gave Milla a firm stare. "Just, Konngara. ...Surnames are common, but less important than in human society. Some oni have them, some oni don't."

'_I think Naka might just… be Naka, then. Well, I'm just Mima to them, so…'_

"Hey!" Suika raised an arm. "Kongo Jungle! Get yer ass over here— an' stick it in!"

"_Rrgh—"_ Kasen was being held up by Yuugi, over one arm. _"Let go a' me— you fuckin' ape!"_

'_Her voice is kinda high-pitched when she loses her composure an' starts yellin'.'_

Konngara's mouth slowly opened. "Yuugi— I'm not sticking _any_ of my swords up Kranky's dirty ass."

"Yeah— don't fuckin'—"

"The hilt should be fine, however."

"_Fucke~r!"_ Kasen went wild against Yuugi's arm. _"I'll fucking— rip your horn out!_ Socially-inept _fuck!_ I'll fucking— fuck you with my horns!"

Konngara's eyes narrowed. "Now I'm _really_ hilting it in you."

"Nnh…!" Suika held up a huge watermelon twice as big as she was. It was from a big dining table placed up here, near her throne. "Fuck yeah! Aa— Konga— it'll be jus' like whe' they put swords in stones in tha' myths! Kassy— maybe a hot guy'll unhilt it from yer ass—"

"_FUUUCK!"_ Kasen's scream made Milla recoil in place. _"YOOUU!"_

'_God, oni can yell…'_

'_Also, I forgot what I was gonna ask Suika!_ _Mmh.'_

Looking around, Milla searched the random oni who'd begun to populate the arena floor, and the halls below. _'Aah…'_

Naka was by some bowls of fruit, looking vaguely intimidated, armed with a big mug of beer. She was staring at Milla, vaguely bewildered by the presence of the devas so nearby…

_whi- whi- whish._ When Milla looked back, Konngara was weaving under Kasen's kicking legs.

_WHAM!_ Konngara succeeded, pummeling her hilt into Kasen's sizable ass.

"_AAAAAA—"_


End file.
